New iPods, New Apple Music Service

[MacRumors]

Apple's Media Event has completed and brings us many of the rumored updates:

A play-by-play of the speech is provided here (http://www.macrumors.com/apr28.html).

In brief, Apple introduced:

- iTunes 4
- iTunes Music Store
- New iPods (10, 15, and 30GB) - with Dock and redesigned face.

A more extensive article / rumor wrapup will be posted shortly.

[madforrit]

Pretty cool store...I could see myself spending quite a bit here...

I'm getting lots of errors...can't browse the store very effectively yet. Anyone else having these problems?

Can't wait to pick up an ipod on Friday...:D

[coolbreeze]

Will the new iPod software allow on-the-fly playlists and ratings on old iPods (2nd generation) or just the new ones? I can't find a solid answer on that...

[Java]

Just downloaded a copy of iTunes 4. One thing I did notice was the type looked a little difference. Anyway, the new iTunes store is awesome. Previews to the songs play effortlessly and with no delay.

A good thing they did keep was the ability to rip your music in mp3, not just in the new AAC format.

Two thumbs up for Steve and Apple!:D

Oh ya, and it is only for Apple users!

[jethroted]

Originally posted by Macrumors
Apple's Media Event has completed and brings us many of the rumored updates:

A play-by-play of the speech is provided here (http://www.macrumors.com/apr28.html).

In brief, Apple introduced:

- iTunes 4
- iTunes Music Store
- New iPods (10, 15, and 30GB) - with Dock and redesigned face.

A more extensive article / rumor wrapup will be posted shortly.

Are the files that we rip our selves going to have the Digital rights managment limits too, or is it going to apply to the music we get from the store only?

[gandalf55]

this is great - but i cant seem to log in to itunes 4 through .mac yet... too many people?

[mk_in_mke]

Can someone explain the concept of "play on a maximum of 3 macs"... ?

Besides, I am waiting this evening to browse through the catalogue and hopefully I will find some songs... I already have several thousands CD's...


MK

[Thresher]

Sorry, but AppleMusic is a non-starter for me.

A buck a song isn't that much less than we pay now per song on CD. Additionally, any restrictions on my use of a downloaded song is a killer. Yes, this is less restrictive than most, but why should I pay a buck a song and then be told what I can and can't do with the music I purchased, especially when I can rip one of the CDs in my collection and play it anywhere and any device I like?

Steve gave a lot of reasons why he thinks this will take off. I don't agree with him. The pricing point is too high and the restrictions are ridiculous. This is not going to convert people that are already downloading music unlawfully. In fact, I don't think it's much better than the services already available, it's just a different spin.

Color me unimpressed (although I do like the new iPods).

[blueBomber]

OMG... Apple soooo rules! The new iPod is a joy to behold

[madforrit]

Originally posted by jethroted
Are the files that we rip our selves going to have the Digital rights managment limits too, or is it going to apply to the music we get from the store only?

Oooooohhh DRM SO better be limited to what we buy at the Music Store. It would make sense that way. Otherwise it would just be a sneaky sneaky thing....

[jcaplan]

Too bad for me....

[Doctor Q]

Wow! Another fun-filled Apple announcement spectacular!

Some thoughts:

(1) What does it cost to buy an album? 99 cents times the number of tracks? Some CDs have a lot of short tracks while others are one big track.

(2) How is the iTunes Music Store going to take off without Windows users for the next 10 months? Will it really take Apple all year to make something like iTunes for Windows or do they purposely want to make it a Mac-only solution to try to get people to switch?

(3) Let's face it. Some music is worth more than other music. How long can they charge 99 cents for each song before the nature of supply and demand kicks in and they start charging 50 cents for bargain music (less popular) and more for the newly released feature-enhanced hot title? Or does supply and demand not apply to digitized music because the supply is infinite? If Elvis returned from the dead and got a billion-dollar recording contract, wouldn't his music need to cost more than music by other artists?

Personal note: Apple showed an infomercial with Alanis Morissette. Last week she was in a recording studio the day before I visited that same studio. Too bad I didn't go a day earlier and bump into her. Maybe I could have learned about it early and had a big scoop to report!

[Elan0204]

Originally posted by madforrit
Pretty cool store...I could see myself spending quite a bit here...

I'm getting lots of errors...can't browse the store very effectively yet. Anyone else having these problems?

Can't wait to pick up an ipod on Friday...:D

Me too. All I can get is the home page for the music service. Everything else I try times out and gives an error 504 or an error 405.

[joker2]

I like all the features at apple.com/ipod/ ... though it seems that there is no method for text input (yet)... so after having synched it with iCal at home, I can't put in the lunch date I made while I was out... otherwise, it looks really good!!

[Athos]

The music store seems to have a good selections and iTunes 4 rocks!!!

Only problem: I'm in Canada... when will I be able to buy from the music store :mad:

At least I'll be able to re-rip my music collection in AAC with iTunes to pass the time...

---
Athos
New mac owner of an iBook 800MHz 12" with 10.2.5

[lmalave]

Sweet - twice the space on the low-end iPod. I may have to get myself one of those 10GB. Does the 10GB still come with the controls on the headphones, or does it not anymore because now it's the "low end" model?

The music store is very cool. I am the ideal customer for it. For my entire life I have rarely bought music (probably less than 100 albums total). But I could see myself buying a lot more music from the iTunes Store, especially being able to preview every song. So it's win-win-win for me, Apple, and the Music Labels. $0.99 cents per song is great. I rarely like more than 2 or 3 songs on a CD so this is right up my alley. So the complaint that $0.99 a song is about the same price as a CD doesn't apply to me, since I'll be paying $2 or $3 for the songs I like enough to actually pay for on a CD.

[stompy]

Wow, rumors were pretty much on target, I don't think I saw a single thing that wasn't reported on this site. Thanks Arn!

<sarcasm> I take that back! I just visited the Apple Store, and can't find the new 15" PowerBook anywhere. SJ, you messed up bigtime ! :mad: </sarcasm>

[vanillamike]

I like the new iPods but I still don't like the drive sizes 10 15 30. I would much rather 10 20 30 (or 40).

$100 US for an extra 5GB to get to the 15GB model is pretty heavy. Makes me want to bite the bullet and put in $200 US to get and extra 20GB but that is a lot of coin for an MP3 player.

Anyone know if apple recalls the old iPods when the new ones come out? or is it a possibility for me to pick up an old 20GB somewhere at a reduced price.

Mike

[robbieduncan]

Whilst I'm a bit pissed that I cannot use the iTunes Music Store (not in the US) I have already ordered my 30Gb iPod. This revision finally reached the point I've been waiting for - an iPod that can hold all my music. I got to the front page of the store and it looked pretty good but every request for anything further timed out.

[holy MAC!]

1) it appears there is only 1 ipod for the two platforms... does that mean it's interoperable?

2) the "optional" usb2 cable, can you use the firewire portion on that on a mac???

other than that.... 8 hour battery life..... oh well... you cut your losses.

[mk_in_mke]

Originally posted by Thresher
Sorry, but AppleMusic is a non-starter for me.

A buck a song isn't that much less than we pay now per song on CD. Additionally, any restrictions on my use of a downloaded song is a killer. Yes, this is less restrictive than most, but why should I pay a buck a song and then be told what I can and can't do with the music I purchased, especially when I can rip one of the CDs in my collection and play it anywhere and any device I like?.

You are right but... more and more, record companies are putting limitations on the CD's you are buying (check Virgin)... It is sad and clearly a limitation on what you can do with what you legally acquired... I have the impression that the more online services like Apple's are going to appear, the more the CD's will be coded so that no copy is possible


Michel

[vanillamike]

Only the 15 and 30 GB models come with the better headphones case and dock from what I gatherd from the msn feed.

Mike

[Shiesl]

I've been trying for the last hour to find out what's up at the AppleMusic site via iTunes 4. I mainly get a 504 error.

[dstorey]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Wow! Another fun-filled Apple announcement spectacular!

Some thoughts:

(1) What does it cost to buy an album? 99 cents times the number of tracks? Some CDs have a lot of short tracks while others are one big track.


I'm almost sure he said $10

I knew when I thought about it that it'd be US only with the likes of different record lables owning the rights to artists in different countries...also the like of different tax's etc.....dam. I wish you could use applemusic just like amazon, browse online instead of just using itunes...I was hoping i could waste away the hours on there listening to samples while i'm bored out of work, and how do windoze people know what they are missing if they can't access the system. Also if it was online then people could browse while away from home when they dont have access to a mac and possibly purchase it and transfer from that computer to your ipod. Was hoping for a comms device but oh well...the ipod looks cool, looks much thinner....

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by holy MAC!
1) it appears there is only 1 ipod for the two platforms... does that mean it's interoperable?

2) the "optional" usb2 cable, can you use the firewire portion on that on a mac???

other than that.... 8 hour battery life..... oh well... you cut your losses.

Yes, one iPod works for either platform. Yes, you use the firewire interface with your Mac. Windows users must have either a firewire interface or a USB2 interface.

[tmsds]

This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

[robbents99]

A friend of mine who has the old toilet seat ibook will be happy with this, nice to see MSNBC had a feed of it.
Looks like downloads galore once I get home....so what's the instore event at the end of this week for?
And what happened with Viveldi Music and all?

[holy MAC!]

I DON'T CARE ABOUT IT'S OTHER FEATURES

if its interoperable... im getting one NOW and THEN my albook 15.

if it's interoperable... then apple has either adapted to fat32 or made a neutral format or some program change....

think about the use for switching between platforms....
1) 3rd party program makes copy of your pc onto your ipod
2) it loads all your important files onto your new mac.... ( or even more cool) into virtual pc!

[beatle888]

i just saw the outline of the service on channel nine kcal news. including the macintosh (apple) only usage. apple is up 36 cents.

[bokdol]

Originally posted by jethroted
Are the files that we rip our selves going to have the Digital rights managment limits too, or is it going to apply to the music we get from the store only?


yah this is something i would like to know. what happens if we rip them our selves. and what about our library. well this new itunes convert aour trackes so they all become restricted? or is it just acc files from the music store? please someone explain.

thank you:confused:

[wrylachlan]

In the presentation, Jobs made a point of showing how some of Eminem's songs were automatically tagged in the iTunes store as "Adult Content". Does this mean there are parental controls built in, so that your child can't purchase those tracks?

[JohnStrass]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?
Absolutely!
The only reason I might be temptted to use Kzaa (of course, I never would...) is because I cant find a lot of the music I like (foreign, local bands from the 80s, small electro groups)anywhere else.

Gimme a break. He was bragging about 16 Bowie albums? I have more than that already. Am-zon has many times more than that.

[chewbaccapits]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

What a stupid statement...I know 5 peeps right now that range from the ages of 15-30, that WILL d/l and support this new venture...

[dobbin]

SJ has been personally talking to record companies for 18 months but forgot to ask about the world outside the US??! huh?

The new stuff looks absolutely great but if Apple doesn't start thinking about people outside the US then SJ can sack my cook!

[drastik]

Originally posted by dobbin
SJ has been personally talking to record companies for 18 months but forgot to ask about the world outside the US??! huh?

The new stuff looks absolutely great but if Apple doesn't start thinking about people outside the US then SJ can sack my cook!

The question here is a billing issue, not a geography issue. The same goes for long distance telephone, if you don't heve deals between the banks, it can't be done or it costs a fortune. It seems pretty clear that it will go world wide, but some infrastructure has to be built up, that infastructure already exists in the US.

As to the Music being to mainstream and for older people, that was probably a very thought out and intelligent move, at least at the start.

The main problem with music downloading is snooty little kids who think that they are owed something, mainly free music. In real life, you realize that its just stealing, its wrong, and you aren't owed crap.

It just tkes a little while to grow up and learn this. Now its easy and elegant to get the songs legally, adults will be more interested in doing it. True music snobs, myself included recognize that no source will have everything you want, you are going to have to seek out some stuff anyway. Kids are going to steal music untill the courts come through on these massive judgments the RIAA wants. Wrong or right, the government and the courts are in bed with big business, the Industry will most likely get its way.

[noel4r]

i like the new ipods, i will finally get either 10G or the 15G. i dont like the restriction on the downloaded music though. it's my music, i paid for it, therefore i own it. who are they to tell me what i can or can't do with it.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

Give it time. Signing up all of the Big 5 was a prerequisite to making this service economically viable. I doubt Apple signed anything that actually prevented them from offering music from independent labels. Honestly, the Big 5 do not see independent labels as a threat, anymore than The Gap or Old Navy would see a small designer or boutique clothing store as a threat. Every industry goes through a predictable cycle of inception, then wild innovation, then consolidation. It's practically economic law at this point, and why should the Music industry be any different?

That being said, I assume Apple has huge economies of scale in terms of adding products to their store. I would think now that the store is built, it is to their advantage to increase their product selection as much as possible (provide the store is still easy to navigate). The more product selection, the more sales and therefore the more $$$ for Apple.

[zzargo]

First off, I'm upset too that I can't use the Music Store being in Canada.

I'm sure it's more of a licensing issue with the record companies than billing.

Anyhow, does the "BPM" feature work for any of you in iTunes?

You can now have smart playlists with BPM but I don't know how to get iTunes to measure the BPM of my songs.

Check out a smart playlist or add "BPM" to the columns in your library.

This doesn't seem like an advertised feature? Was this in iTunes 3? (I don't remember but I don' think so).

Zzargo

[rickvanr]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

i agree... although i do like some of this music, i do wish they had a bigger selection, and a more diverse selection. The first three bands i searched had no results come back. If im going to use this there needs to be a better selection. looks like its back to irc for me - atleast until there is a bigger selection. Although there is more selection on the apple music service then at the local music store.

and another thing, with all the new things advertised on the ipod page, how come none of the new features can be used on my old ipod? the only chaange i noticed is AAC support and a selection for the ipod... i thought those new games looked decent, and i wanted to try out the alarm clock.

[corwin]

After more than an hour, I've gotten nothing but errors (405s and 504's). I can't browse genres or preview any file that isn't one of the 3 U2 songs (but why would I want to?). I also have to agree that the front page for the service reflects pretty dismally old music tastes; I'm in my mid-30's and most of this stuff is the main fare of Lite Rock for the Middle Aged Middle Class (Sting, Cheryl Crow, Eric Clapton, U2) that I don't particularly want to belong to. This is an unimpressive start for Apple, which usually does remarkably well; this ought to work as seamlessly as iPhoto.

[alset]

Great opportunity to make lots of money off me, failed due to bandwidth issues. I know Mac users all over are flocking to the store, but this is pathetic. I have been able to play one track and buy none after an hour of attempts.

WEAK, APPLE!

(btw - that doesn't stop me from bragging to my PC friends)

Dan

[jeremy.king]

Gimme a break. He was bragging about 16 Bowie albums? I have more than that already. Am-zon has many times more than that. [/B]

Do you actually think the Music Industry powers are going to give rights to every song ever recorded to Apple for the Music Store?

Apple has to prove this will work and it CAN make money.

And to those who whine about the $.99 cost, there are very few albums (with exceptions of greatest hits/collections/etc) from ANY artist that I enjoy every song on the CD.

Imagine you like 4 of 12 songs and the CD is $12 in the stores. Download the 4 you like instantly and save $8. Sounds like a good deal to me.

*stroking chin* I wonder what the music labels cut of the $.99 is???

[dongmin]

Originally posted by JohnStrass
Absolutely!
The only reason I might be temptted to use Kzaa (of course, I never would...) is because I cant find a lot of the music I like (foreign, local bands from the 80s, small electro groups)anywhere else.


Actually the reason I find Kazaa & co. useless for me is that rarely do I find anthing out of the mainstream. If you're looking for the latest Eminem or JLo, no prob. But for anything specialized, good luck finding anything. It's definitely not what Napster once was--you could find ANYTHING when it was 'legal' and everyone was on it.

The design of the service is fantastic; kudos to Apple for the implementation. But I'm disappointed by the catalogue. I haven't browsed it much but 200,000 songs doesn't seem that much. It has to do better than the local Tower.

[caveman_uk]

Originally posted by jcaplan
Too bad for me....
Yep, great idea but being US-only amazes me as I didn't think it was possible for something to both suck and blow at the same time (to quote Bart Simpson). Strangely enough there IS a world outside the borders of the USA and it's the part where we pay more for our macs to start with and get a crappier service. This is like the iPhoto stuff - how long has that been US only? Oh well, Limewire works (sort of) wherever you live...:mad:
The question here is a billing issue, not a geography issue. The same goes for long distance telephone, if you don't heve deals between the banks, it can't be done or it costs a fortune. It seems pretty clear that it will go world wide, but some infrastructure has to be built up, that infastructure already exists in the US.
Yeah right, we're so backward we don't have credit cards over here we're still using sea shells and pebbles. I've used my UK Visa card to buy stuff from US-based firms with no problem at all. So that's a red herring. Now if you said it was the record companies being difficult then I'd believe you...

[melchior]

so, i was excited and ready to start ripping cd's. thought i'd check the 128vs.160 qualities, so i ripped them both. both had a beep, just about every 15 -20 seconds.

i ripped more tracks. more cd's. i rebooted. i tried just using quicktime. i rebooted again. i checked quicktime 6.2 is installed...

anything i encode with the aac codec has these little annoying beeps all through it. and they alternate in stereo from left to right. weird. mp3 is fine. aiff is fine. just aac.

anyone have this problem? i am so sad:(

[painandgreed]

I imagine that I'll be uninterested in the music service till they get some industrial and punk (pre-1986 American Hardcore) stuff on their list.

I'm more interested in the new features on the iPod: note reader, games, and I'm told there is already a built in calender. Add a calculator and some text input and you'd have a reasonable PDA. The text input could be done the scroll button going though the alphabet and other characters and the center button for enter. Seems this would be about as fast as my struggle with text recognition on my PalmPDA. Looks like Apple may have released a PDA and just nobody noticed.

[Dave K]

Originally posted by Athos
Only problem: I'm in Canada... when will I be able to buy from the music store :mad:

Hopefully, right about the same time they get the Canadian rights holders to sign on for $1 CDN a song, instead of $1 US, which would be roughly what we pay now.

[lmalave]

Originally posted by kingjr3
*stroking chin* I wonder what the music labels cut of the $.99 is???
$0.65

It's been discussed before...

[yzedf]

right about the time that people start ignoring the service, it will be available for the other 95% of computer users. :(

no more windows / mac version of the iPod is VERY good though. very good for warehouse / shipping / tracking needs.

the record still stands; every available online music service has huge problems.

[jayb2000]

$10 for a new album isn't bad - better than the 17-19 some record stores charge.

The cost of CDs would be a factor, but I have so many CDs I wanted to get an iPod anyway, so I don't see any need to burn them. So a flat $10 is not bad.

I wondered about double-albums. I did see several Pink Floyd albums are more than $10 and the song Echoes from Meddle (23 min ong) is not available for $.99, only if you buy the album - and the album is $11.99

I guess $10/album is not a flat fee - but the basic cost. :mad:

I would use this versus some p2p stealing, but I don't think it will put p2p out of "business"

[MetallicPenguin]

I'm getting a lot of errors also, is this just the amount of people using it right now? And either way I think it's pretty slow, the iPods are awesome though!

[MacBandit]

I found a flaw in searching for songs in the music store.

If you looking for a song/album/band that uses accent marks in the title (i.e. ü, é, ö, etc. etc.) you will not find those songs/albums/bands unless you include those marks. Seems pretty rediculous if you ask me. I rarely remember that the band uses those.

As for mainstream music only. Well that's what you get when you sign the big labels. What I'm sure Apple is doing is by getting the big labels they have shown an industry interest. After showing that the service is working and making money they can coax the often much more anti-piracy smaller labels into singing on too.

Also if you want to suggest an artist to be added or simply want to give feedback on the service go to this page.

http://www.info.apple.com/usen/musicstore/musicstore.html?topic=music_downloads

On the right side the box labeled frequently asked questions is a link to an iTunes music suggestion box.

[starflyer 59]

So, I have a couple of questions. do they keep some sort of log file that knows what you ahve downloaded? What would happen if my computer was destroyed and I had to re-download all of my music. Will they charge me again?

Also, what will be the availabity of new releases on this thing? If a new album comes out on a Tuesday, is it available for download that same day? Or is their a couple week delay in availability?

Travis

[macrumors12345]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
How long can they charge 99 cents for each song before the nature of supply and demand kicks in and they start charging 50 cents for bargain music (less popular) and more for the newly released feature-enhanced hot title? Or does supply and demand not apply to digitized music because the supply is infinite?

Well, the supply curve is not that much different qualitatively than it was with CDs. In both cases it is flat and close to zero (because the marginal cost of producing another CD or another AAC track is very low), albeit even closer to zero with the Apple Music Store than it was with CDs in retail stores (saying the supply is "infinite" is not really such a useful concept).

Anyway, for the most part they should (in theory) be setting prices to maximize revenue. It is really the elasticity of demand that will determine the price, and yes, in theory they should probably have lower prices for tracks that are not in demand. But the same should be true with CDs, and yet prices are very uniform across albums (yeah, some old stuff gets discounted, but it's still kind of shocking in some sense how many CDs fall between $14-18 at Tower Records, or whatever). So there is no guarantee that they will start differentially pricing different songs based on demand, even though in theory it seems like they ought to, if they are maximizing profits...

[jayscheuerle]

Every shot of the base looks like an illustration to me. Is this thing even built yet? - j

[AppleMatt]

Remember everyone...

If this takes off (which I for one hope that it will), more and more artisits will come on board. It was very unlikely that Apple would be able to cater for everyones tastes on the LAUNCH day!!!

They update the music every tuesday, so hopefully in a weeks time there will be some more artists onboard.

Also the restrictions etc, within a few days there will be haxies to remove them, yes not everyone likes (or wants) haxies, but then you just decide which is more important, what you can do with *your* music, or what you have installed on your system.

Of course all IMHO :)

AppleMatt

[dongmin]

Originally posted by painandgreed
I'm more interested in the new features on the iPod: note reader, games, and I'm told there is already a built in calender. Add a calculator and some text input and you'd have a reasonable PDA. The text input could be done the scroll button going though the alphabet and other characters and the center button for enter. Seems this would be about as fast as my struggle with text recognition on my PalmPDA. Looks like Apple may have released a PDA and just nobody noticed.

yeah the new iPods are being overshadowed by the announcement of the music service but I think Apple did a pretty sweet job with the upgrade. By offering the USB2 option, Apple is making a pretty aggressive pitch for PC users. If you look at the tech specs page, Apple gives very fair and even plug of both firewire and usb2.

The new notes feature is also interesting for its potential. I read on Apple's site about possibly downloading restaurant reviews with the new applet. There's potential for a AvantGo-like service for the iPod. This is definitely a stealth-pda if I ever saw one. The only limitations I see are its smallish display and lack of an input.

[MacManDan]

I think it's about time!

I've been waiting since last October or November for the iPod updates. Thank goodness they finally released them, I was getting ansy! They look awesome, I can't wait!

Seems like I'm having the same problem as a lot of other people, the Apple Music Store is being very anemic .. Perhaps because there are so many first-time users swamping their poor servers ;)

[Foxer]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

I would agree, if you're starting from zero...

I already own the CD's of all the inide and English bands that I like, and I will always want to buy them in "tangible" form. All I want this service for is to download the mainstream song that I'd never buy otehrwise. For example, I like "Hotel California," but I'd never, ever buy an Eagles album to get it. Now I can, for a buck. It would make me happy if any of my five favorite bands were on there (I cant't wait to get home and check), but it doesn't really matter, since I already have all there stuff, and will buy the CD as new stuff comes out.

[gandalf55]

i managed to login... and bought

megadeth's "wake up dead" :: peace sells but who's buying.

kick ass. KICK ASS I SAY!!!!

[robotrenegade]

I'm loving the streaming iTunes... I'm also having problems with the music store getting errors.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by starflyer 59
So, I have a couple of questions. do they keep some sort of log file that knows what you ahve downloaded? What would happen if my computer was destroyed and I had to re-download all of my music. Will they charge me again?

Also, what will be the availabity of new releases on this thing? If a new album comes out on a Tuesday, is it available for download that same day? Or is their a couple week delay in availability?

Travis

They keep a list just to insure you don't accidentaly buy duplicates. When you are about to purchase a duplicate it simply warns you about it.

If your cd collection is stolen or lost to fire etc. does the production company allow you to replace them for free? I hope that answers your question. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but they do have to pay for bandwith and server costs etc.. I do think you should suggest this idea to them though through Requests & Feedback option at the Music service homepage in iTunes.

[shadowfax]

yay, i'm going for a new iPod. they look pretty classy; i like the retro look. quick question--is there a way for me to convert my library to AAC without losing all the count and rating info and what not?

[skunk]

Since half Apple's sales are outside the US, why the hell can't we use iTunes or iPhoto ordering outside the US?

[Le Big Mac]

Originally posted by noel4r
i like the new ipods, i will finally get either 10G or the 15G. i dont like the restriction on the downloaded music though. it's my music, i paid for it, therefore i own it. who are they to tell me what i can or can't do with it.

Do you really have that simplistic a view of what you're buying? They can sell you a song with limited rights for 99c or they can sell you a song that you can share with your friends and a million internet strangers, but they'll charge you a heck of a lot more. It's called copyright law, and it gives the holder the right to control distribution. Without it, no more music.

It's no different with any other music, books, etc. you buy. You can read it; you can loan it to a friend; you can photocopy parts of it. But you can't make a million copies (or let others do so).

Apple's offering a product to honest people, and placing reasonable restrictions on distributing the music. If you don't want to be honest, keep using kazaa.

[macrumors12345]

Originally posted by vanillamike

$100 US for an extra 5GB to get to the 15GB model is pretty heavy. Makes me want to bite the bullet and put in $200 US to get and extra 20GB but that is a lot of coin for an MP3 player.


Mike

I disagree.

Going from 10 to 15 gets you: an extra 5 GB of storage, the Dock, the wired remote for the headphones, and the carrying case/belt clip.

Going from 15 to 30 gets you: an extra 15 GB of strorage. (And an extra 0.6 ounces of weight, which is a minus!)

I think that for many people the first package of additions is worth more than the second package of additions (which only includes one good thing - the other thing is a bad thing!).

[unfaded]

Originally posted by noel4r
i like the new ipods, i will finally get either 10G or the 15G. i dont like the restriction on the downloaded music though. it's my music, i paid for it, therefore i own it. who are they to tell me what i can or can't do with it.

Um, they're the composers of the music, you idiot. It's THEIR music, not yours. They're letting YOU listen to it, so piss off.

[gandalf55]

seems like u can only buy one at a time... would be nice to queue these up and have it rip through em.

[zigi]

Has anyone else noticed how little processor iTunes is using. I'm playing a 192 encoded mp3, and it's fliking between 4-10%. Looks like there have been a number of AltiVec enchancements to the app. It used to jump between ~10-25%, BTW this is on a 2001 733MHz, QS.

Later

[lmalave]

Originally posted by macrumors12345
I disagree.

Going from 10 to 15 gets you: an extra 5 GB of storage, the Dock, the wired remote for the headphones, and the carrying case/belt clip.

Going from 15 to 30 gets you: an extra 15 GB of strorage. (And an extra 0.6 ounces of weight, which is a minus!)

I think that for many people the first package of additions is worth more than the second package of additions (which only includes one good thing - the other thing is a bad thing!).

No way, dude. Believe me, the pricing of the 15GB is just a ploy to get more people to buy the 30GB. Before, the 10GB was the most popular because it was only $100 more than the 5GB. Twice as much space for only $100 more. Apple is betting that more people will pony up the extra $100 for the 30GB because it is perceived as a better value than the 15GB. (Though personally, cheap bastard that I am I'm about to put in an order for the 10GB).

[HashPipeK]

y105sucks.com has the commercials online.

[Booga]

I can't believe people are complaining about "only" being able to copy the song to 3 PCs, any number of iPods, or burned to CD. I think that's incredibly reasonable for $0.99! It lets you listen at home, work, and your laptop, as well as your iPod. If you only want the 1 or 2 songs from a CD, you don't have to buy the whole thing. If you DO want to buy the whole thing, it's cheaper than the store. You can preview songs before you buy in your own home.

It sounds to me that Apple really got it right for a 1.0, limited release service. As more record companies, countries, Windows users, etc., get added on, this could really pick up steam. But considering how overloaded the servers already are, it seems like a good idea to limit the distribution on roll-out.

[zigi]

Has anyone else noticed how little processor iTunes is using. I'm playing a 192 encoded mp3, and it's fliking between 4-10%. Looks like there have been a number of AltiVec enchancements to the app. It used to jump between ~10-25%, BTW this is on a 2001 733MHz, QS.

Later

[jayscheuerle]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
yay, i'm going for a new iPod. they look pretty classy; i like the retro look. quick question--is there a way for me to convert my library to AAC without losing all the count and rating info and what not?

You'd be recompressing your songs a second time and would sound like crap. You could re-rip all your CD's if you had a couple of weeks!

[firestarter]

Originally posted by gandalf55
i managed to login... and bought

megadeth's "wake up dead" :: peace sells but who's buying.

kick ass. KICK ASS I SAY!!!!

Whadda ya mean I don't pay my bills.
Why do you think I'm broke? Huh?

...can you put a price on peace? :D

It is fantastic! Good to hear that it's not just U2 and the Coors on this service...

[caveman_uk]

Originally posted by skunk
Since half Apple's sales are outside the US, why the hell can't we use iTunes or iPhoto ordering outside the US?
It's like buying a car and the salesman ringing you up saying 'Sorry but didn't I tell you can't use the fourth cylinder?'

[Dave K]

Originally posted by skunk
Since half Apple's sales are outside the US, why the hell can't we use iTunes or iPhoto ordering outside the US?

iTunes: My basic understanding? Because the holders of music rights differ between countries (even on the basic level of Sony Japan/Sony USA/Sony UK/Sony Canada), for the very simple reason that each country's branch tends to have to deal with the local rules on copyright, contracts, local content quantity, etc and because of this tends to maintain it's own artist lists based on how well they think they're going to play in that market. Therefore, you don't necessarilly get access to all of the regions by signing any single one and tend to have to negotiate your way through each one at a time.

In the end, provided this works out, it wouldn't surprise me if there will likely be local stores for each Country based on billing location and some form of "importing" worked out for artists not carried by the labels in the country you're in.

Someone more informed will likely be along to clarify the fine print of the above.

Of course, at the same time limiting it to the US initially allows the music companies to assess the potential damage amongst a limited group and walk away if things don't work in their favour as well...

iPhoto: I'd lean towards inability to find local distribution hubs to publish. Although, you'd think it would be available in Japan if that was the only issue...

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by Shadowfax
is there a way for me to convert my library to AAC without losing all the count and rating info and what not?You wouldn't want to convert existing MP3s to AAC format, if that's what you mean. Your MP3s have already lost quality when they were encoded in MP3 format, and converting to another format won't restore that lost information. In fact, I think you'd lose more. It's like resampling a low-resolution image at a higher resolution. The data changes but you can't get more information out of it, so it doesn't get any better.

Of course, Apple would be happy to sell you AACs of all the music you bought previously!

[Doctor Q]

[Duplicate post deleted.] Gee, I wonder why the server is so busy today???

[Pepzhez]

I may be wrong here, but I don't even see the need for a hack in order to work around any import/export restrictions.

Unless Apple's DRM technology is far more advanced than any extant system out there, it appears to me that it would be relatively simple to get around any restrictions. What is to prevent one from burning the library to standard redbook CD, then reimporting the burned selctions back to the HD - thus eliminating any and all tagged restrictions? (Then again, perhaps itunes 4 applies this restriction on ALL files imported into the playlist, whether it is a purchased song or the recording you yourself made of your grandmother singing. We will find out soon enough!)

Redbook CD specs contain no provision for DRM tags, and I'd be really surprised if Apple's DRM technology would be able to magically alter the nature of the redbook standard.

[Timothy]

For those naysayers...I think you're in left field...

1) Lack of selection:
7 of my top 10 artists are indie's that can't be found on this service. But, the beauty of this service is that I don't have to pay a subscription fee to belong, so selection is no big deal. If they have the song I want, great! If they don't then I'm no worse off then if I didn't have access to this service. I have trouble finding my favorite artists in many record stores as well...but, this doesn't reflect terribly upon Apple. This service is a great start for day one. I am confident they'll continue to add artists and smaller labels.

2) Price:
$.99 is a great price. If there is an artist whose album I'd like in entirety, I'll surely buy it in the traditional manner. Again, since this service costs me nothing to browse, what am I out if they don't have it? I'll use this service extensively to flesh out my collection with songs whose entire album I probably wouldn't want. So, $.99 for the one song I want, or $17 for the entire album in hard copy? I'll take the former, thanks.

3) Other countries.
This is day ONE. Give Apple a break. The licensing agreements, I'm confident, are complex. They'll roll out the other countries in due time. I understand the dissapointment, but keep it in perspective.

One suggestion: it would be great if I could buy the physical product as well if I wanted. For example, add $5 and we'll ship the physical CD to you. They could partner with another music store to provide this service if they don't want to handle physical product. But, as long as they have the store, they should maximize it. I'm sure they'll add features as it develops.

[GregGomer]

So I bought a song from Apple, and it was 3/4 of the way downloading, this was after an hour of those 504, and 405 errors, I just love errors that are descriptive so you know what they are warning you about.

Any way, the song was 3/4 done, when it stopped and couldn't complete. No worries, I just went back to the Purchased Music playlist, but it wasn't their, so I tried to download it again with the Advanced/Check for purchased Music option, I get an error that says, I have already download all of my purchased Music.

K, that's no good, if I can only download it once. I don't like that, but even if that is the policy,they better make sure that it was downloaded before they cut me off.

Hopefully just a simple bug they'll fix, I don't want to end up paying $5 bucks just to get this one song, as I don't want to pay for each download attempt.

[greenstork]

I understand that iTunes will only register your purchased playlist on three computers. Does that mean that the song is encoded to work on only those three computers. It is my understanding that when you buy a new computer that you deauthorize the old one and activate the new one.

The reason that I am asking is I can't figure out why a playlist can only be burned 10 times unless that is the only copyright protection on music you burn onto CD.

If anyone has yet tried to rip iTunes Music Store music onto a CD and then take it to another non-registered computer, please let me know how this worked.

[GeneR]

I went to the Pasadena Apple Store today and watched the last half-hour of SJ's presentation and I was VERY impressed. The idea of AAC as the new compression standard makes a heck of a lot of sense.

Why not 128 bit? Heck! We're going in that direction anyway! :D

What I noticed is that when SJ said that they would be expanding the services to Windows by the end of year, the crowd got a little quiet. :D

However, I think if Apple has a eight to nine month head-start over windows they're doing something right: turning the tables on the M$ world who has plagued us with later release dates than the PC world. Generate the ENVY factor.

Now all we need is that 970... hehehe! :D

[thrice]

Two Points:

Point 1:

Hypothetical situation:

Let's say I go to the iTunes store and buy three songs from Beck's new album "Sea Change."

I pay $2.97 for all three. Now what happens if I like those three songs and decide to purchase the whole album? Do I get to download the remainder of the album and pay the difference ($7.02), or do I have to download the entire album (including the three songs I already purchased) for $9.99?

Point 2:

I just downloaded the new firmware (1.3) for my iPod and the new features aren't included. I can deal without the games/alarm(although it would be handy)/customizable menus/notes features...but the least they could do is include the playlist on the go feature for old iPod users, or at least some of the new firmware features.

[scmacdaddy]

how come i can't get solitaire or the alarm clock or notes on my old ipod? i was under the impression this was part of the 1.3. i guess it's only on the new ipods....this doesn't make sense.

[Booga]

A CD-quality track for $0.99 that you can use on 3 computers, any iPod, and burn to CD for the car pretty much takes care of 99.9% of the legal uses for copying music that I can think of, at a pretty good price! And if you want 4 songs from an album, you're talking less than half the cost of buying the CD from the store. And you can preview and buy from home.

I'm sure the servers are overloaded right now, but of course that's going to get better as every single customer in the country isn't using it simultaneously. It's no huge surprise that Apple wants to roll out in stages, either, as frustrating as that can be for foreign or Windows users.

The bottom line is that this makes it easy to be legal. People will probably find ways of cheating the system, but now it will be simpler to stay legal than to cheat.

All in all, I think Apple really nailed this one.

[Foxer]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
You wouldn't want to convert existing MP3s to AAC format, if that's what you mean. Your MP3s have already lost quality when they were encoded in MP3 format, and converting to another format won't restore that lost information. In fact, I think you'd lose more. It's like resampling a low-resolution image at a higher resolution. The data changes but you can't get more information out of it, so it doesn't get any better.


I think what he's asking is: Is there a way to remove the MP3 compressed tracks from your library and re-rip them into AAC format but still maintain the iPod track info (rating, play count, etc).

At least that's what I asking. I'm afraid I already know the answer...

[copperpipe]

I've always been impressed with Apple download speeds, but I too am having problems accessing the information on the new service. This means that everyone, and I mean everyone, is so excited to try this that today it's an overload. Don't worry, Apple will fix this issue. And as for getting more labels on there, that will happen too. And as far as getting this available internationally, yep, that'll happen too. And I think it'll be available for PCs too, eventually. Think of it this way - the labels and Apple are really implementing a new system for buying music. I iamgine the Labels were more than happy that this would only affect the 3% or whatever of marketshare. They can test it out, see how well it works, and make it the amazing service that we all know it will be, and then open the doors to the wide audience.

Again, what we see are people that thought Apple would have everything amazingly perect right out the door. These people need to get real, and realize just how amazing this service is right now, and how much better it will be in 6 months to a year. IMHO.

[alfonsog]

That rendezvous sharing thing on itunes works great over airport with my iBook and my iMac! I'm having problems with the music store but I finally got it registered. Chose the option to add to shopping cart, everything works fine, just lots of server errors for now...what do you expect for first day!
Anyway I'm happy with the selection for now, there is no membership fee so if its not there what do you lose? And they have feedback, I'm sure if they get a million requests for a song they would be happy to make that million dollars by putting it online...


Anyway the only cd's I buy are classical music and show tunes, otherwise the radio works. Now if I like a "popular" song enough I'll download it for $.99. I've maybe bought 3 rock/pop cd's ever for just a few songs. I'm not sure how AAC will be for classical music but most mp3's were quite bad.

[madforrit]

Originally posted by gandalf55
seems like u can only buy one at a time... would be nice to queue these up and have it rip through em.

you can can't you?
In the itunes prefs, it lets you decide whether you want one-click or a cart. I'd assume if you did cart you could load it up and whoosh!:D

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by greenstork
I can't figure out why a playlist can only be burned 10 times unless that is the only copyright protection on music you burn onto CD.I imagine that the intent is to allow you to make your own CDs for personal use, while preventing you from going into the music publishing business and stamping out many copies. That, in turn, implies that the implementation makes all those CDs usable anywhere, i.e., they are limiting iTunes' ability to burn the CDs because the CDs aren't themselves protected. If you really want 11 CDs for personal use, you can always vary the playlist. As you say, we need somebody to report on how it really works.

[thrice]

Just downloaded a song off the new music service. Not bad!!!! Still can't browse through genre/artist/album menu, but I imagine it will happen soon enough. The download was fast and the song was automatically imported into the iTunes library. Also, there is a record of the sale in my personal account profile, though I don't know how long that will be there. Oh yeah, it's $0.99 a song + $0.5 tax charge, so $1.04 total.

[MorganX]

Like the new service, but I'll pass on this round of new iPods. Not good.

[tazo]

I am somewhat confused. Cant you access the online store, this itunes thingy, via the internet? how are pc users with ipods supposed to access this store? I tried it on my pc for kicks and it says, "you must have a mac..etc"

i am guessing pc users are screwed then? nice little coverup there Apple.

[starflyer 59]

So, when you download, can you only keep it in your download tracks folder or can you eventually move it out of there and put it in your library and treat it as if you ripped it yourself.....

[starflyer 59]

Damn, a coworker of mine is going right now to pick up a 12" Powerbook.... He is completely stoked about this service and the ability to rip to AAC.... what a punk. I am jealous of the feeling he has right now.... that excitement of showing up at the store with the intent to buy.

[deepkid]

http://thinksecret.com/news/aprilipods.html

Think Secret had it right all along. It was great how they used an artist's rendition to show us what the new pods would look like.

Give them a hand. :)

[Styvas]

I had a heck of a time trying to get my iBook's playlists to share on my iMac. I finally realized that the built in firewall is blocking sharing. However, I'd rather not have to leave the firewall turned off. Can anyone suggest what port the iTunes sharing feature is using so that I can unblock only that one instead of turning the whole firewall off?

[Stelliform]

Originally posted by tazo
I am somewhat confused. Cant you access the online store, this itunes thingy, via the internet? how are pc users with ipods supposed to access this store? I tried it on my pc for kicks and it says, "you must have a mac..etc"

i am guessing pc users are screwed then? nice little coverup there Apple.

I really think this is for the music holders. The Mac community represents a small portion of all computer users. This is a great way to test out the service on a small group of users. They can always shut it down later and not be worse for wear. I think that is why SJ said, there should be a PC version later this year...

I bought a song and it is pretty cool! I have no problem paying for the music I listen to, I just didn't like the old fork out $20 for a CD that had only one song I wanted, (Or $5 for a single) This is much better for me. :D

[zyuzin4]

I bought a 3 Doors Down album throught the music store, and created a new playlist, burned the album to cd. Popped it into my PC it is recognized as a normal music cd and was able to rip to mp3 with ease no more copy protection, Now putting the CD back into the ibook and having it import yeilds.....(kind: AAC audio file)
the original purchased copy...(kind: PROTECTED AAC audio file) I think this should mean that burning to CD then importing will remove protection and allow use on more than 3 macs, but i do not have that many to test on

Hope this helps, it was interesting to try

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by dongmin
But I'm disappointed by the catalogue. I haven't browsed it much but 200,000 songs doesn't seem that much. It has to do better than the local Tower.

I'm a bit disappointed too. 200,000 songs sounds like quite a few, but:

RIAA numbers say that last year they (just the Big Five, not any independants counted in!) produced 25,000-27,000 albums. Even at only 10 songs per album, that's 250,000+ songs, in one year!

200,000 songs is a lot of songs, but will understandably not at all cover every nook and cranny of the recording industry.

Aside from initial depth of content and bandwidth issues at startup (which is normal for an initial launch of a web-based service), this looks very good to me! Both issues, along with those that others are complaining about (US only, Mac only), can be fixed with time. Here's hoping that we beta testers can get the tires kicked and the kinks worked out before the service goes full-access at the end of the year!

[richard5mith]

Originally posted by tazo
I am somewhat confused. Cant you access the online store, this itunes thingy, via the internet? how are pc users with ipods supposed to access this store? I tried it on my pc for kicks and it says, "you must have a mac..etc"

i am guessing pc users are screwed then? nice little coverup there Apple.

Cover-up? Do you have problems understanding simple statements like "it'll be available on Windows before the end of the year?"

[Bob Knob]

Originally posted by tazo
I am somewhat confused. Cant you access the online store, this itunes thingy, via the internet? how are pc users with ipods supposed to access this store? I tried it on my pc for kicks and it says, "you must have a mac..etc"

i am guessing pc users are screwed then? nice little coverup there Apple.

No coverup at all, SJ did say that it was Apple only right now, But the Windows version would be here before the end of the year. Maybe this means iTunes for Windows, or some other Windows app will access the store.

[CrackedButter]

People not seen the musicmatch for ipod on the ipod information page?

No itunes for windows...

[coolsoldier]

I hate restrictions on what I can do with my music (to the point where I prefer to download songs off of LimeWire from "protected" albums that I own). As I see it, this will NOT take off as long as file sharing services exist because of these restrictions.

I am still not completely sure how all of this works, though. I am sure that as long as I can get unrestricted copies elsewhere, I refuse to settle for restricted copies of the music I buy. I have no problem paying for music, so long as once I do, I can do with it what I please. As I said, I DO purchase CD's, but once I buy them, If they are "protected", I still download all of the tracks.

BTW, quality is only a small issue for me. My stereo equipment is not particularly high-quality, and 128kbps is plenty of quality for my tastes.

[AppleMatt]

Originally posted by gandalf55
seems like u can only buy one at a time... would be nice to queue these up and have it rip through em.

madforit is right. You can add them to your shopping basket and then buy/download them all in one go via the preferences in iTunes.

Originally posted by zigi
Has anyone else noticed how little processor iTunes is using. I'm playing a 192 encoded mp3, and it's fliking between 4-10%. Looks like there have been a number of AltiVec enchancements to the app. It used to jump between ~10-25%, BTW this is on a 2001 733MHz, QS.

No, but I have noticed it is generally smoother on the Beige (G3), eg when clicking the browse button. No difference on other macs. Searching appears to be slightly slower however, maybe thats due to converting the library?

AppleMatt

(Can't wait to rip all my albums in ACC onto 12" Powerbook when it's delivered!!!)

[Angelus]

If your not happy with the rough look of the text in the itunes4 update.go to system preferences,general and change"turn off font smoothing for text sizes"to 8.This should sort you out,much easier on the eyes.

[psxndc]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Personal note: Apple showed an infomercial with Alanis Morissette. Last week she was in a recording studio the day before I visited that same studio. Too bad I didn't go a day earlier and bump into her. Maybe I could have learned about it early and had a big scoop to report!

HA! Good Luck! When I was in college I was vice chair of our concerts committee. We brought Alanis to our school right after jagged little pill was released (before she got huge). Talk about Diva. No one from the school was allowed in the "backstage area" (hallways of the sports dept). We had to relay all information through her bodyguards. I _doubt_ you would have bumped into her. Sorry, but we had some real punks come and perform (you of course don't know until they're booked) and Alanis was by far the worst (jewel was a distant second).

matchbox20 (back then it was numeric and there was no space between the letters (promoters rules)) OTOH were amazingly nice and came out aftwards for pictures and autographs... but i digress.

-p

[jettredmont]

Three Mac limitation. That's a bit hard to swallow for me. I'm not 100% positive how it's been implemented, but it appears to be the "authorize/deauthorize" mechanism described here a few days ago.

So, I have my music on my three Macs, and one of them dies. I buy a new Mac to replace the old one. What happens to my music? The old Mac is dead, and won't boot up to "deauthorize" itself on my files. Is there a way to "deauthorize" the Mac without the machine booting up?

Alternative scenarios: My laptop is stolen, or lost, I replace my hard drive (alt issue: where is the "key" to the machine, in the hard drive or elsewhere?), I reformat the drive, etc.

I'd like to see this figured out before I spend too much money on restricted-use files. Of course, doubtless there will be sub-legal ways of breaking this restriction, but I'd prefer an officially-sanctioned recovery mechanism.

[Goblin2099]

New iPods look sweet. Here's a comparison of the old models with the new ones:

DIMENSIONS:
OLD
Size and weight (5GB model)
• Height: 4.0 in
• Width: 2.4 in
• Depth: 0.78 in
• Weight: 6.5 oz (185 g)
Size and weight (10GB model)
• Height: 4.0 in
• Width: 2.4 in
• Depth: 0.72 in
• Weight: 6.5 oz (185 g)
Size and weight (20GB model)
• Height: 4.0 in
• Width: 2.4 in
• Depth: 0.84 in
• Weight: 7.2 oz (204 g)

NEW
Size and weight (15GB model) (Same as New 10GB model)
• Height: 4.1 in
• Width: 2.4 in
• Depth: 0.62 in
• Weight: 5.6 oz (158 g)
Size and weight (30GB model)
• Height: 4.1 in
• Width: 2.4 in
• Depth: 0.73 in
• Weight: 6.2 oz (176 g)


BATTERY LIFE:
OLD
Built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery (1200 mAh)
• Playtime: 10 hours when fully charged

NEW
Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery (630 mAh)
• Playtime: 8 hours when fully charged

AUDIO:
OLD
• Up to 20 minutes of skip protection
NEW
• Up to 25 minutes of skip protection


Of course, the capacities changed, along with supported file types (addition of AAC) and the feature set is different, but I thought these changes in specs were interesting (I actually really wanted to see the differences in size/weight). Environmental requirements stayed the same, even though the new version is claimed to be more "rugged."

[AppleMatt]

I can see why Apple do not want you to download the same track over and over...because you could log on at more than 3 machines and therefore break the agreement...

...but I agree fully with the comments here, reformatting, stolen, corrupted, incomplete downloads etc etc.

Perhaps after pushing through feedback (hint hint ;)) they will reconsider.

AppleMatt

[jMc]

Just a few notes on iTunes 4...

i. As has been mentioned it uses much less CPU time...

ii. Visuals are smoother/better (even tho' oddly I'm still getting the same frame rates as before - which on a 600 iMac is only about 14 ;)

iii. The album art is displayed with the song title during visual playback ;) Now just got to wait for someone to come up with a nice little app to automatically download the album art off Amazon (like Clutter does)...

iv. It's got a proper volume slider - rather than the rather dodgy gradated thing it had before...

v. It's green! Which actually sort of messes up the aesthetics of my dock, but I'm sure I can cope...

I was never expecting the store to be a worldwide thing at launch... mores the pity. As to the errors, I downloaded iTunes 4 as soon as it became available and was able to browse quite peacefully until all you lot jumped on the bandwagon... then nothing but errors. :(

jx

[Stelliform]

In case y'all didn't know, I downloaded a song and I couldn't download it right now. (Download failed) It tells you to go to advanced an check purchased music. Then it tries again. No worries on getting what you paid for.

[TMJ1974]

Based on ThinkSecret's great artist preview - I had already decided that I didn't care much for the new iPod design. Nothing against those who like it, I just prefer the "current" iPod.

For those of you like me....I just bought the "current" 10GB iPod from the Apple store for $249, inlcuded are the remote, and case, which are not included with the new 10GB iPod.

Just thought I'd pass that along.

iTunes4 should be great though. I think I'll reinstall of my music as AAC now :-)

Tim

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by Pepzhez
Unless Apple's DRM technology is far more advanced than any extant system out there, it appears to me that it would be relatively simple to get around any restrictions. What is to prevent one from burning the library to standard redbook CD, then reimporting the burned selctions back to the HD - thus eliminating any and all tagged restrictions? (Then again, perhaps itunes 4 applies this restriction on ALL files imported into the playlist, whether it is a purchased song or the recording you yourself made of your grandmother singing. We will find out soon enough!)


The last I heard the goal here wasn't "airtight security" (which is impossible ... if you can hear it it can be recorded and copied plain and simple), but "casual security", meaning it takes a moment or two of thought and maybe research before the average Joe breaks copyright, during which time he'd hopefully either realize that breaking copyright is wrong or maybe come across a web site detailing exactly wy it is wrong.

Airtight security has been a goal for DRM for quite some time. It is an unachievable goal. At some point, making your security more airtight begins inconveniencing your customers, and you end up with airtight security only because no one has or wants your content to begin with.

[Jaykay]

Originally posted by CrackedButter
People not seen the musicmatch for ipod on the ipod information page?

No itunes for windows...

According to the main page of MR, itunes for PC is quite likely.

Anyways is anyone else annoyed about the font changing in itunes4 its really bugging me. (I know if i try hard enough i can change it - and im quite lazy actually)

[erik1975]

Well, Apple just reached into my wallet and took over $500 today! (Not that I'm complaining) I can't wait to get my new 30 GB ipod!

Here is what I am wondering . . . On the large icon on the main Apple store page it says the following:
"Order today and get your new iPod by Friday afternoon"
I paid the $8 for 2 day shipping, but the order status page shows a ship date of Friday May 2nd.

Isn't the ship date usually the date it leaves the shipping dock at Apple?

P.S. In order to curb the potential for even larger amounts of money flowing from my wallet, I am planning to wait a few weeks before I register for the new music service.

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by starflyer 59
So, when you download, can you only keep it in your download tracks folder or can you eventually move it out of there and put it in your library and treat it as if you ripped it yourself.....

You can move it anywhere, but it will still be encoded as protected AAC. That's where the DRM restrictions come: from the encoding, not from the file system placement.

[jgracia]

The fabolous about this is that you can hear about 30 seconds of every track you want... something that you haven´t when planning to buy an ordinary CD. Because maybe you will never ear a track like that in MTV or a radio station.

[eric_n_dfw]

One interesting note, searched for Moving Pictures (Rush) and found that the track, "The Camera Eye", which is over 11 minutes long, is not available for sale on it's own. The price is blank and the button says "View Album". The same is true for 2 long tracks on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. (track times: Time, 7:06 and Us and Them, 7:40)

[edit] Dark Side of the Moon costs $14.99 too BTW.

[Doctor Q]

Originally posted by zyuzin4
I bought a 3 Doors Down album throught the music store, and created a new playlist, burned the album to cd. Popped it into my PC it is recognized as a normal music cd and was able to rip to mp3 with ease no more copy protection, Now putting the CD back into the ibook and having it import yeilds.....(kind: AAC audio file)
the original purchased copy...(kind: PROTECTED AAC audio file) I think this should mean that burning to CD then importing will remove protection and allow use on more than 3 macs, but i do not have that many to test on

Hope this helps, it was interesting to try Your experiment was quite interesting. One thing seems odd: If you imported an MP3, why did it show it as an "AAC audio file"?

[DakotaGuy]

Originally posted by zigi
Has anyone else noticed how little processor iTunes is using. I'm playing a 192 encoded mp3, and it's fliking between 4-10%. Looks like there have been a number of AltiVec enchancements to the app. It used to jump between ~10-25%, BTW this is on a 2001 733MHz, QS.

Later

Yes I noticed this even on my old iMac DV G3. It works way smoother and is pulling less on the processor. So even without Alti-Vec there are benefits. Thank you Apple.

[zyuzin4]

Originally posted by Doctor Q
Your experiment was quite interesting. One thing seems odd: If you imported an MP3, why did it show it as an "AAC audio file"?


Oh I imported to MP3 on the PC and AAC on the mac. Both worked fine and my non protected AAC files sound fine with no beeps that have been previously mentions. BTW i do not use Quicktime PRO

Mike

[DakotaGuy]

One other comment...

THANK GOODNESS the purple icon is gone! I like the green note!

[twelve]

i still don't understand why people would use this when you can get it all for free plus the fact that no independent music is available means i'm interested in about .01% of the stuff they offer. I guess i hope it is successful to give apple some revenue to finally get the chips back in the running and i must admit they did a great job of integrating the store aspect within iTunes.

[rog]

Originally posted by vanillamike
I like the new iPods but I still don't like the drive sizes 10 15 30. I would much rather 10 20 30 (or 40).

$100 US for an extra 5GB to get to the 15GB model is pretty heavy. Makes me want to bite the bullet and put in $200 US to get and extra 20GB but that is a lot of coin for an MP3 player.

Mike

I think that's the whole point! Drive people to conclude that the best deal is the most expensive model. There's a reason they don't have a $199 model even though they could make one and still make a profit. You do of course also get the stand as part of the upgrade to 15GB. I agree though, compared to yesterdays $400 10GB model, the 15 is underwhelming, whereas the 30 gets you a bit more in comparison to what the 20GB got you yesterday. I still think they each need to drop $100, but then there goes their profit margin.

[makkystyle]

So anyone care to explain how the "Shared Music Library" works? I'm guessing this is the rendezvous feature, so does this mean that other macs on your network can access your music library???

[stukoch]

Can a music service really be called a music service without the some of the best-selling artists of all-time?

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Puff Daddy, Notorious B.I.G., etc...

-Stu

[macguymike]

Maybe it could be covered under AppleCare. ;) ;p


Originally posted by MacBandit
If your cd collection is stolen or lost to fire etc. does the production company allow you to replace them for free? I hope that answers your question. I'm not saying it's a bad idea but they do have to pay for bandwith and server costs etc.. I do think you should suggest this idea to them though through Requests & Feedback option at the Music service homepage in iTunes.

[sososowhat]

I've been playing with the 30-second preview. It sounds great, and there's essentially no delay.

Why not just make all music available as "pay per listen" at maybe 2-cents or whatever.

Choose custom play-lists 25-cents/hr.

The universal juke-box for the 21st century. All music available all the time; pay for what you listen to.

No copy, no copy-protection, no problem.

I understand it doesn't replace the iPod (which I'm about to buy) until we've got good high-speed wireless, but from my desktop, it would be way cool.

[scmacdaddy]

i don't think apple thought of college networks when they implemented sharing. It is by far the best part of itunes for me. i now have streaming access to about 40000 songs, and that's only from people who have downloaded itunes this afternoon at my school!

[Stella]

Steve mentioned the service will be available to windows users, however, he didn't say when apple will discover the "World". Yes, the "World" does not consist of the US.

Just like in other apple software, ie, sherlock, most of it is totally useless to the rest of the World.

Apple can't keep on messing the rest of us about like this.

Music Licensing issues or not, Apple should sort this out.

Apple have not does anything until other parts of the world are catered for before other competitors fill the gap for the rest of us. This will be a shame it Apple don't sort themselves out.

[makkystyle]

maybe apple did think about the colleges... I'd like to think that was steve's little gift to all us poor college students! Okay, we won't pirate your music just let us share it :D I mean after all that is what napster, kazaa, gnutella and the rest were originally for right.

[Aciddan]

Originally posted by Timothy
For those naysayers...I think you're in left field...

3) Other countries.
This is day ONE. Give Apple a break. The licensing agreements, I'm confident, are complex. They'll roll out the other countries in due time. I understand the dissapointment, but keep it in perspective.


Call me a Naysayer Timothy, I'm willing to wait a little longer for International iTunes - however call me cynical when iPhoto print ordering and Sherlock features such as maps are *STILL* not in Australia.

Kodak stores are everywhere and obtaining prints from CDs has been around for ages - where's my iPhoto service!?

A comprehensive Map website (whereis.com.au), Yellow Pages and Whitepages are all here - can we use Sherlock to access them? No!

I think Apple is shooting themsleves in the foot not having these services because people are out there want to use them.

Ok enough of my rant - I really do hope that this music service makes an appearance in Oz soon - but I'm a little cynical given Apple's track record...

-- Dan :(

[jthrasher]

Originally posted by tmsds
This music service is utterly useless unless you are about 45-years old with a taste in music as refined as a launch event that has Bono gapping about the "future of music". Give me a break - Jobs spent the last year wiping the BigFive's asses and didnt bother to get a single (even Semi-) Independent on board? Sting, Sheryl Crow, U2? An alternative section that feaures the Cranberries? Who is in charge over there? Ned Flanders?

You people are absolutly so ignorant. How can you say that this is useless? This IS the future of music. Big deal that there arn't any independent labels yet. BOO fricken HOOOO!!! Didn't you not stop to think that the majority of the country listens to what is popular and if Apple wanted to make this work it would be advantages for them to wipe the asses of the Big five so that they would be on board and the Independents will follow? Eventually everyone will be in on this. But noooo you people have to find something to whine about. Everything has to be perfect and no flaws when it comes out. You look at the flaws first rather than the opportunities for this. People like you make me so mad. Obviously this service will appeal to people of all ages and all tastes of music...hence all the different genres. DUH!!!!!! Persnally U2 is my fav. band and argueably the best band in the world. And I also am a fan of Ned Flanders...but I don't think he's in charge otherwise there would be only hyms to download. thats my two cents

[pyrotoaster]

I was very excited when I first learned the details about version 1.3 earlier today.

Why can't old iPods support the new features? They have the same number of buttons, so why can't I play solitare or make a playlist on-the-go (my two favorite features).

I sent feedback to Apple through the iPod feedback page (here (http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html)). I don't want to have to buy a whole new iPod just for some software features.

[Java]

Can a music service really be called a music service without the some of the best-selling artists of all-time?


Well, Steve made sure to include Bob Dylan.

[littlejim]

I've been on the Music Store this evening and it performed without a hitch - the previews are going to be especially useful.

I would have spent a few dollars tonight, but as I'm in the UK, I'll have to find another way to get the tracks I want.

I'm sure it's not Apple's fault that Music Store is US only - but you know the worst .... Windows users in the US are going to get access to this service before us loyal Apple users everywhere else.

Steve ... that REALLY hurts.

[Wash!!]

I loved, Only apple could do such a great service. It worked like a charmed.

go apple go!!!:D

[scmacdaddy]

not sure if this was mentioned (this is a long thread) but you can just go to amazon and download cover art for all the albums you already have and drag them into itunes..sweet feature

[stukoch]

Originally posted by Java


Well, Steve made sure to include Bob Dylan.

No, I said "best-selling", not "worst-smelling"

-Stu

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by twelve
i still don't understand why people would use this when you can get it all for free plus the fact that no independent music is available means i'm interested in about .01% of the stuff they offer. I guess i hope it is successful to give apple some revenue to finally get the chips back in the running and i must admit they did a great job of integrating the store aspect within iTunes.
You still don't understand why people don't want to steal? Is that really what you are saying?

[howard]

Originally posted by Foxer
I think what he's asking is: Is there a way to remove the MP3 compressed tracks from your library and re-rip them into AAC format but still maintain the iPod track info (rating, play count, etc).

At least that's what I asking. I'm afraid I already know the answer...

yes thats what i want to know.... i would really really like to know.

[rog]

Originally posted by pyrotoaster
I was very excited when I first learned the details about version 1.3 earlier today.

Why can't old iPods support the new features? They have the same number of buttons, so why can't I play solitare or make a playlist on-the-go (my two favorite features).


Jeez, I for one am glad they kept this out. I don't need it and don't want it. Get a PDA or a gameboy. I think the less junk they add on the better! Remember the 1.2.1 fiasco that suddenly sent battery life into the toilet for many? Was it the alarm, the clock? Who knows, but it took 7 months to fix!

Playlist on the go is sorta nice, doubt I'd ever use it, and it's not a huge burden to only have playlist creation in iTunes. Really, we all bought the old models as they were without any promise of future improvements and yet we got some anyway. My Walkmans certainly never gained features months later! I'm just stoked that now I can use AAC on my very space limited 5GB.

One feature I'd really love--song deletion from the iPod, or at least a way to make it automatically get deleted the next time it's plugged to your mac.

[pyrotoaster]

Originally posted by rog
Jeez, I for one am glad they kept this out. I don't need it and don't want it. Get a PDA or a gameboy. I think the less junk they add on the better! Remember the 1.2.1 fiasco that suddenly sent battery life into the toilet for many? Was it the alarm, the clock? Who knows, but it took 7 months to fix!
Playlist on the go is sorta nice, doubt I'd ever use it, and it's not a huge burden to only have playlist creation in iTunes. Really, we all bought the old models as they were without any promise of future improvements and yet we got some anyway. My Walkmans certainly never gained features months later! I'm just stoked that now I can use AAC on my very space limited 5GB.
Well, let me state my case here.

1. I actually own a Gameboy, but I don't carry it with me everywhere. Besides, it's pointless to compare solitare to a gameboy game.

2. I've owned a PDA before, and I never use them very much. I don't need the other features. Just mp3 and a good timewaster game (although I like the idea of taking quick text notes).

3. Don't complain about 5 GB iPod battery power. I own a 5 GB and I know how bad the battery used to be. You might have missed that the 1.3 Read me mentions that it provides even better battery life than before.

4. I would really use the playlist feature. I use my iPod to sample new music when I get it, and would love to be able to put my favorite new songs into a playlist right away.

Come on Apple! Let's see a full featured update for older 'Pods!

[howard]

so...i got artwork from amazon.com and dragged it to my itunes artwork window..but then i realized that the little 20% showed up like it was on amazon...so i found another good picture and dragged it ...but now i have 2 pictures and little arrows where i can switch the artwork...but i don't know how to delete the art i don't want...any ideas?

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by rog
One feature I'd really love--song deletion from the iPod, or at least a way to make it automatically get deleted the next time it's plugged to your mac.
Being able to delete (or mark for deletion) a track would be GREAT! Often I will notice a flaw or duplicate when I am away from the computer, that way one could make some sort of notation to delete it, or delete it right away.. that would be a cool feature.

[macguymike]

Originally posted by erik1975
P.S. In order to curb the potential for even larger amounts of money flowing from my wallet, I am planning to wait a few weeks before I register for the new music service.

There is no registration fee. Just Buy, Mix, iPod. :D

[furthur]

No Grateful Dead????????????????

[IndyGopher]

Originally posted by macguymike
There is no registration fee. Just Buy, Mix, iPod. :D
You have register for the one-click portion of it, at least. I was one page 3 of the registration before I backed out, knowing full well I would spend a hundred dollars by tomorrow morning if I made it that easy.

[pyrotoaster]

Here's one thing to consider if you can't find your favorite artists.
More groups and artists will probably join the service as more people (PC users included) start downloading.

[stukoch]

Here are some features that I would love to see in Apple Music 1.1

1. More artists (Beatles, Stones, Madonna, etc)

2. Ability to browse store while listening to a preview clip

3. Partnership with Billboard to view & download the top albums and singles

4. More artists

5. Movie soundtracks

6. User reviews and critic reviews

7. More artists

8. Ability to link to songs externally, like from my web siite. (This may be possible now??)

-Stu

[macguymike]

Originally posted by sososowhat

Why not just make all music available as "pay per listen" at maybe 2-cents or whatever.

Steve Jobs said specifically that this service was not about "renting" music. In fact he made a point of noting two places online where you can go and use music only as long as you're registered there and saying that model is not what is desirable.

Most people want to have their music to be able to port it around, and renting music doesn't play well with importing to other computers/iPods. :)

[littlejim]

Originally posted by furthur
No Grateful Dead????????????????
I agree ... NO Grateful Dead ;)

[stukoch]

Originally posted by furthur
No Grateful Dead????????????????

Ironic isn't it?

-Stu

[erik1975]

Originally posted by macguymike
There is no registration fee. Just Buy, Mix, iPod. :D

I know there is no regestration fee. What I am afraid of is that I will Buy, Mix, iPod myself broke! :)

[Edot]

Would someone listen to a Randy Newman (Live) song, and tell me that it is good quality. I have been pleased with other songs' quality, but this sounds like I am underwater?? What is the deal! Just making sure I'm not going crazy:D I hope this is an error, and someone accidentally encoded it at 64kbps:eek: I was convinced all the songs would sound good, but apparently you need to listen to them before you buy. I wonder why it sounds so bad? Otherwise I think the service is very good!

[howard]

to elaborate more on the amazon cd art downloading...

also when i drag the art i find over to the box it only makes it for that specific song...not all the songs of that album...seems funny...and i'm not going to drag art for every single album i have on itunes

[deepkid]

Originally posted by jthrasher
And I also am a fan of Ned Flanders...but I don't think he's in charge otherwise there would be only hyms to download.

Hahah..thank GAWD he isn't in charge.

[SoonToGetAMac]

For everyone concerned, you don't lose your iTunes play count and whatnot if you rerip the CD in AAC and click 'replace originals' when it asks. Just make sure you have Quicktime 6.2 and have AAC selected in the itunes prefs.

[littlejim]

Originally posted by howard
to elaborate more on the amazon cd art downloading...

also when i drag the art i find over to the box it only makes it for that specific song...not all the songs of that album...seems funny...and i'm not going to drag art for every single album i have on itunes
Hi-light all the songs you want the cover art to apply to, then drag-drop.

[littlejim]

Originally posted by littlejim
Hi-light all the songs you want the cover art to apply to, then drag-drop.

But I bet someone is writing an Applescript to automate this as we speak ...

[Qball]

Originally posted by lmalave
No way, dude. Believe me, the pricing of the 15GB is just a ploy to get more people to buy the 30GB. Before, the 10GB was the most popular because it was only $100 more than the 5GB. Twice as much space for only $100 more. Apple is betting that more people will pony up the extra $100 for the 30GB because it is perceived as a better value than the 15GB. (Though personally, cheap bastard that I am I'm about to put in an order for the 10GB).

I agree with this. I don't perceive an extra $100 of value in the 15GB. Hell, if I take my lunches for a couple of months, I can scrape together an extra hundred to get the 30GB. I think this pricing strategy will pull SOME buyers up to the 30GB model.

[mhodgso2]

For all you people outside of the US there is a petition started to get iTunes, iPhoto, and sherlock for international users. Here's the link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/AppleInt/petition.html

I live in the US and I signed it jusst because I feel for all the international people! Come on apple!

-Matt

[Qball]

Originally posted by thrice
Just downloaded a song off the new music service. Not bad!!!! Still can't browse through genre/artist/album menu, but I imagine it will happen soon enough. The download was fast and the song was automatically imported into the iTunes library. Also, there is a record of the sale in my personal account profile, though I don't know how long that will be there. Oh yeah, it's $0.99 a song + $0.5 tax charge, so $1.04 total.

Just curious -- I suppose you create a username and provide them with a credit card number. Is that basically the gist of it?

[trose]

Now I am not a picky audio guy, I barely notice the difference in bit rates and such....but listen to this song

Sonata "Moonlight" No.14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, Mvmt. I Adagio Sostenuto

I payed and downloaded it...and it is just not good enough quality. There is a horrible hissing noise in the backround.

Someone listen and tell me if I am crazy, and if not, are all the songs of this quality?

I hope not :(

Otherwise(big otherwise), great service! I love it from what little bit I have used.

[Hmm]

Two of the biggest advantages I see with the Apple Music service:

1) Instant Gratification - You want a song, you can preview it, buy it and own it without ever leaving your couch. How could you not like that?

2) I noticed that Who's Next was listed in Staff favorites. I took a look and it lists twenty nine songs on the album! Huh? Turns out this is a special edition album with remasters and live versions and a bunch of songs I never even heard of selling for $19.99. I imagine this is available as a CD from the store, but if I just want the extra live versions or songs that were B-sides, I can just buy those songs and not have to buy the whole CD.

I think this will be a great way to get some of the extra songs that aren't always on the CD.

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by trose
Now I am not a picky audio guy, I barely notice the difference in bit rates and such....but listen to this song

Sonata "Moonlight" No.14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, Mvmt. I Adagio Sostenuto

I payed and downloaded it...and it is just not good enough quality. There is a horrible hissing noise in the backround.

Someone listen and tell me if I am crazy, and if not, are all the songs of this quality?

I hope not :(

Otherwise(big otherwise), great service! I love it from what little bit I have used.

A hiss like that might be from the original recording. Now if you find several songs, from different albums, genres, etc that all have the same hiss...

[blueBomber]

it just dawned on me that the firewire port is no longer built into the ipod itself. This would be a hassle for me; if I want to take it to a friends house and transfer files to their computer, I have to take the docking station instead of just a firewire cable. This kinda stinks.

[Pismo]

I was really impressed with the updates today to the iPod. I think the 15 gig iPod will be perfect for me. Now I just need to wait for the new 15" Aluminum PowerBook to be released and then I'll buy them both.

[Qball]

From Fortune.com, I found this interesting:

"And anybody who tries to upload iTunes Music Store songs onto KaZaA will be shocked. Each song is encrypted with a digital key so that it can be played only on three authorized computers, and that prevents songs from being transferred online. Even if you burn the AAC songs onto a CD that a conventional CD player can read and then re-rip them back into standard MP3 files, the sound quality is awful. "

So, could you take that CD, rip it to MP3, and load it up on KaZaA, even if it sounded "awful?"

[Pismo]

I'm pretty sure someone will make a krack that'll remove the piracy feature from the song file.

[MetallicPenguin]

Dang, I really wanted my metallica in this, too bad maybe they'll com into the service (probably not because their drummer will go psycho or something)

[nickgold]

So I downloaded New Order's _Bizarre Love Triangle_. Came down very quickly, dug the preview. Wicked, this is smooth as hell.

So I try to play it, and I get an error saying the machine needs to be authorized to play music purchased with my apple ID. OK, so I plug in my password.

And I still can't play the song. I get the message asking me to authorize the damn machine EVERY TIME I TRY TO PLAY THE TRACK. I tried de-authorizing and re-authorizing -- didn't help. I definitely do not have other machines authorized for iTunes 4 purchased music playback.

WHAT IS THE DEAL?!

Is the authorization server just dead or something? Is my copy of iTunes corrupt? Has anybody else run into this?

I am _really_ digging the service, but this is a real pain and is killing my buzz, frankly.

[Balin64]

Hey, is iTunes 4 now Cocoa native? I noticed that the "recessed" window buttons have appeared in iTunes (as in iSync, Safari, iCal). Also, the Speech services work now. If this is not the case, I am sorry, but it would explain the speed increase!

[rog]

Accessing another mac on my airport network is slow. Took about a minute to show the library on my iBook from my DP 867.

AAC importing is slower than MP3. Bummer. I regularly got 15X burning from my 52X CDR. With AAC I get 10X.

Stupid Apple music store won't let me confirm my credit card info. I'm sure it's just overloaded but it's clear it is not yet set up yet for daily use. There are really not all that many modern mac owners who download iTunes on the first day. They really should have been able to handle things on day one but I'll reserve judgement of course for a few weeks. Lets hope it's not like .mac with its regular outages.

[Monkeypoo]

Okay, someone was bitching about not having complete control over the usage of the song they download so I need some simple explanation on the problem. From what I understand, the song can only play on 3 macs. No prob for me since I barely had the $$$ for my 1 powerbook let alone trying to have 4 macs. But for those more fortunate to have 4 macs, um, go buy the damn cd in a store if this is such an issue (since you obviously can afford $14 if you can afford 4 >$2000 machines). Otherwise, Can I not burn 1000000000s of cds with this downloaded song with no problem (so I have to mix things up every 10 burns no biggie) ? And should I acquire tons of ipods, all of them can have this downloaded song. What's the big deal (again, simple terms)?

[gwaereth]

"(since you obviously can afford $14 if you can afford 4 >$2000 machines)"

Weeeellllll...... I wish...
I am fortunate enough to work in an office which is mac centric (Ad agency). So, I get to have a G4 tower in the office.
At home I have a G3 Tower, which I've had for a few years now. I'm looking forward to getting a new 15" PowerBook when they come out.

Now, since it's entirely possible that my work mac could get swiched out on me, for whatever reason, that means I could get to 4 macs. Granted, I'm the extreme, but it's possible.

I think the thing that I am worried about isn't so much the likelihood of having 4 machines at once, as much as I'm worried about having 4 machines over time.

I wish I could afford them all at once.
The easiest work around I've seen is the whole burn to cd, and rip back to file. Of course, I am far too lazy for that. Also, will iTunes recognize the track after it's been burned to cd, will I have to re-enter all of the tags?

In any case, I am not a rich guy, but I am certainly a power user who would feel better with even a 5 or 6 machine limit... Of course, someone will always have an extreme case.

[FlamDrag]

I for one really like the new service. It worked for me just fine - search was flaky - and for ME this is a great way to buy music.

Some older CD's cost $17.99 for no reason whatsoever. $9.99 now? Sounds good to me!

All in all I'm impressed. The note about 'buy today, get it by Friday' is GREAT. It shows a commitment to getting product out the door? Are we seeing a "new" Apple? They're loosening their lips a bit, shipping product when they're announced... Strange!

My chief complaint is that I haven't been able to find some songs "Jump Around" for example. Although I suspect that as it pics up steam, this issue will resolve itself for the most part.

[kallisti]

I actually do most of my burning through Toast rather than iTunes. Anyone know if Toast is (or is going to be) able to convert AAC to AIFF like it currently can with MP3? More importantly, if Toast has or gains this feature will it cancel the "10 burn limit" imposed by the new music service?

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by gwaereth
I think the thing that I am worried about isn't so much the likelihood of having 4 machines at once, as much as I'm worried about having 4 machines over time.


you can deauthorize the machine you stop using, and authorize the new one. and it'll work. (don't ask how you do that. :))

[iN8]

How does iTunes 4 know what country I am in. I can't find anywhere on my system where I can set this. I live in the Bahamas, but I have a US credit card. The first time I launched iTunes 4 and went to the music store it said it is not available in my country yet. Can I trick it some way, or change some setting somewhere?

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by twelve
i still don't understand why people would use this when you can get it all for free plus the fact that no independent music is available means i'm interested in about .01% of the stuff they offer. I guess i hope it is successful to give apple some revenue to finally get the chips back in the running and i must admit they did a great job of integrating the store aspect within iTunes.

personally, most of the music i listen to is "independent"... that said, if you're into indie bands that much, you really shouldn't be all that into getting it free... indie bands need the money more than anyone, and yet you hose them by using p2p... nice.

[gwaereth]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
you can deauthorize the machine you stop using, and authorize the new one. and it'll work. (don't ask how you do that. :))

Oh, come on... You can't expect me not to ask now!!!
That's cool then I guess, but does anyone have an idea as to how this works?

Just curious now...

thanks jelloshotsrule (and yes, yes they do rule)

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by stukoch
Can a music service really be called a music service without the some of the best-selling artists of all-time?

The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Puff Daddy, Notorious B.I.G., etc...

-Stu

i think it's the first day.... 200k songs is not all that much as many people have said. but it seems to me that apple is doing (or at least having a part in) the encoding themselves... so i don't mind that it takes them some time.

rather have em paying workers to get os x flying than making sure madonna is available...

though i certainly see your point. it's just a matter of time i'm sure.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by gwaereth
Oh, come on... You can't expect me not to ask now!!!
That's cool then I guess, but does anyone have an idea as to how this works?

Just curious now...

thanks jelloshotsrule (and yes, yes they do rule)

ha. i'm sure someone has a better idea than me... from reading all the posts in this thread, i've concluded that your mac has to be up and running to de-authorize (or at least it sounds that way)... so it's probably like registering your computer, but just UNregistering it... though i'm not sure where that takes place

give it a few days/weeks and i'm sure all the little details will come out.

[Hmm]

Originally posted by iN8
How does iTunes 4 know what country I am in. I can't find anywhere on my system where I can set this. I live in the Bahamas, but I have a US credit card. The first time I launched iTunes 4 and went to the music store it said it is not available in my country yet. Can I trick it some way, or change some setting somewhere?
Perhaps it checks your IP address. Maybe you could use Anonymizer or another proxy service to get around it if that's the case.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
ha. i'm sure someone has a better idea than me... from reading all the posts in this thread, i've concluded that your mac has to be up and running to de-authorize (or at least it sounds that way)... so it's probably like registering your computer, but just UNregistering it... though i'm not sure where that takes place

give it a few days/weeks and i'm sure all the little details will come out.


There is a menu option to authorize or deauthorize in the Advanced Menu of iTunes.

[MacBandit]

Quit complaining about music selection. The selection is great for a brand new service. If there is a song or album you want tell them. There is a ling at the top left of the home menu on the service that says, "Requests & Feedback". Click it and tell them.

[jelloshotsrule]

Originally posted by MacBandit
There is a menu option to authorize or deauthorize in the Advanced Menu of iTunes.

and here i was thinking it'd be complicated. :)

[DGFan]

Originally posted by starflyer 59
So, I have a couple of questions. do they keep some sort of log file that knows what you ahve downloaded? What would happen if my computer was destroyed and I had to re-download all of my music. Will they charge me again?


I am sure this has been answered 6 times already tonight - but just in case it hasn't:

I checked out this very question in the help files. If you lose your computer you lose the files and you have to buy them again. Thankfully you can burn them to a data CD from within iTunes and there is a handy playlist for this very purpose.

[gwaereth]

Originally posted by MacBandit
There is a menu option to authorize or deauthorize in the Advanced Menu of iTunes.

So, what happens if the machine dies or is lost before you can go and de-authorize it? Are you locked into a "ghost" machine?

Is there a centrally located area or place at Apple where you can kill that "ghost"?

[Chele]

Originally posted by howard
so...i got artwork from amazon.com and dragged it to my itunes artwork window..but then i realized that the little 20% showed up like it was on amazon...so i found another good picture and dragged it ...but now i have 2 pictures and little arrows where i can switch the artwork...but i don't know how to delete the art i don't want...any ideas?

This took me forver to figure out. It is really simple though, I just didn't look around enough. If you haven't figured it out already, just go to "file" and "get info" and there is a "artwork" tab. You can delete the artwork from there. You can't delete it on multiple songs though, which kind of sucks. :rolleyes:

[nickgold]

When you burn a data CD within iTunes 4, are the songs you burn onto that disc, the ones that have been purchased, subject to the "only on 3 macs" limitation? If I am playing directly off of the CD, that is, and not importing the files? Obviously ana udio-format CD gets around this limit, but what about the data CD format, which is new to iTunes, and preserves the original format of the songs (incl., presumably, protected-AAC?)

[Mudbug]

As far as the new music service goes, so far it seems like a winner. Content will come with time - you can't expect the complete discography of every major recording label and the phat beats or smooth licks of every indie label to be there for the asking on day 1. It'll come. Just ask for what you want.

<off topic> I had fun this morning chatting with the guys (and girls?) in the ichat mrevent chatroom during the announcement. We ought to do that more often - immediate feedback is pretty neat - like having a conversation with people in 20 different countries all at the same time. I for one really enjoyed it. Thanks to all that participated. And for the record, it was a lot easier to keep up with than the irc fee - that was just too much all at once. </off topic>

[vniow]

Originally posted by Mudbug
<off topic> I had fun this morning chatting with the guys (and girls?) in the ichat mrevent chatroom during the announcement. We ought to do that more often - immediate feedback is pretty neat - like having a conversation with people in 20 different countries all at the same time. I for one really enjoyed it. Thanks to all that participated. And for the record, it was a lot easier to keep up with than the irc fee - that was just too much all at once. </off topic>

Hell yeah, that's probably the bast part of all these big announcements, that whole Macrumors iChatroom started at MWSF this year and it pops up every once in awhile when the server's too busy and such, anyone can join!http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=258478

[Brain]

Here are my concerns/questions/observations

-If I choose to rip my cds via AAC instead of MP3, will there be any restrictions on the songs, or is that only on the ones that are downloaded from the music store?

-Ever since today's bunch of downloads/upgrades, my airport is a bit unstable, allways losing the connection to the base station, anyone else having that problem?


all in all, a big day for the Mac, mt Ti 1Ghz is up and running with all the new stuff and I think the Music Store has promise. I'd say that the price is a bit high & really should be closer to 60 cents. I'll still buy cds, but this will give me the option of getting just the tracks that I want.

And then there is the issue of what to so with my 5gig iPod....

[twelve]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
personally, most of the music i listen to is "independent"... that said, if you're into indie bands that much, you really shouldn't be all that into getting it free... indie bands need the money more than anyone, and yet you hose them by using p2p... nice.

eventually i buy the vinyl edition if i like what i hear and spend hundreds of dollars supporting bands and live music.

major labels screwed themselves by inventing a product which has no scarcity (value) and never lowered prices on cds which now cost three cents so it seems like karma getting even. to be honest, parts of me want this service to fail miserably so that the record companies will completely collapse. in some ways apple is their last hope.

[QCassidy352]

The ipod just got beaten hard by whatever ugly stick turned the sleek imac G3 in to the beast we call the emac. Ouch, apple, not good. Not good at all. And did anyone else notice that they quietly cut the battery life to 8 hours? That is a huge minus for me. Playing time is what it's all about. And the dock? Come on. Stop trying to be a PDA. That thing is not needed.

My 5 gb ipod just became a lot MORE valuable to me! If I were gonna buy a new ipod I'd look for a deal on a discontinued model without even considering the new ones.

(p.s. And don't think I'm just one of those people who is never satisfied no matter what apple does. While many people were badly disappointed with last weeks ibook updates, I was so happy I bought one the day it came out. I've also been satisfied with other recent releases, like the PM, the Albooks, and even the imac bumb was ok. But this one stinks!!!)

[rog]

I was wrong earlier. Rendezvous doesn't work for me AT ALL. Still cannot submit my credit card info through iTunes when reviewing my account. Now I'm annoyed.

[Balin64]

I cannot believe after 200 posts and looking at iTunes all day you guys and gals do not see the difference in the iTunes 4 buttons and interface. Even the small-view iTunes module sports a new look. I love the new music service: it is great, and moreover a rendesvouz network between my G4 and iBook works perfectly! Now I can share the 3000 tunes on my bedroom tower with my friends in my living room audio system... but dang it, is iTunes 4 cocoa? I was under the impression that only cocoa apps sported the recessed buttons top left and took advantafe of speech services. If I am wrong and uneducated, my apologies. If not, hey, go Apple! Only iPhoto and iMovie to go and we will be all Cocoa...

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by twelve
...major labels screwed themselves by inventing a product which has no scarcity (value) and never lowered prices on cds which now cost three cents so it seems like karma getting even.

Let's get a few things clear about the economics. The physical CD before burning costs about 3 cents if you buy the cheapest available. Actual production of a finished CD for reasonable quality costs about 50 cents. That is only the CD production, not the packaging, shipping, etc. which adds quite a bit more. Now then add on the additional costs of anti-theft measures that must be added on the retail end (as in anti-shoplifting) and retail overhead. Don't forget the royalties that have to be paid to the artists. We are now at a few "Dollars". Then you have to factor in the "big dollar items" such as marketing, promotions, etc. Then there is the retail profit. Before the record lables even get their cut, they have to pay out several dollars per CD just to get it out there. Yes they make plenty of money, but it isn't the very excessive amounts some folks use to justify their pirating. The retail outlets typically make more per unit profit then the record companies, who make their money off of volume.

As to the Apple Music Store, I for one really like it. I always have a hard time remembering the names of songs I like, but know them when I hear part of them. By being able to listen to songs I was able to find just the ones I wanted and spent about $17 for a total of 24 selections. (one album plus several singles) A bargain for the smart shopper.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Balin64
I cannot believe after 200 posts and looking at iTunes all day you guys and gals do not see the difference in the iTunes 4 buttons and interface. Even the small-view iTunes module sports a new look.

Actually this has already been commented on. I guess you didn't actually read all those 200 posts. At this point there is no conclusive answer on if it's cocoa or not.

[vniow]

Originally posted by MacBandit
Actually this has already been commented on. I guess you didn't actually read all those 200 posts. At this point there is no conclusive answer on if it's cocoa or not.

I believe its still Carbon, I have Cocoa Gestures installed and every single Cocoa app, no matter when it was installed, has a menu option for Cocoa Gestures preferences, iTunes does not.

[JGowan]

Just bought an album from the service (Prince's Under the Cherry Moon)...

Then I decided to try to get around Apple's "protected" sitch. Used "Audio Hijack Pro" ( http://www.rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro ) in the AIFF mode (highest level 16-bit)... then I brought the AIFF file and ripped it at 160 AAC. Sounds Very good. Not quite as good as the original 128-AAC from Apple, but at least I can do what I want from now on with the file.

Not a real good solution for lots and lots songs, but a nice workaround for a small amount.

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by Shaktai
Let's get a few things clear about the economics. The physical CD before burning costs about 3 cents if you buy the cheapest available. Actual production of a finished CD for reasonable quality costs about 50 cents. That is only the CD production, not the packaging, shipping, etc. which adds quite a bit more. Now then add on the additional costs of anti-theft measures that must be added on the retail end (as in anti-shoplifting) and retail overhead. Don't forget the royalties that have to be paid to the artists. We are now at a few "Dollars". Then you have to factor in the "big dollar items" such as marketing, promotions, etc. Then there is the retail profit. Before the record lables even get their cut, they have to pay out several dollars per CD just to get it out there. Yes they make plenty of money, but it isn't the very excessive amounts some folks use to justify their pirating. The retail outlets typically make more per unit profit then the record companies, who make their money off of volume.

As to the Apple Music Store, I for one really like it. I always have a hard time remembering the names of songs I like, but know them when I hear part of them. By being able to listen to songs I was able to find just the ones I wanted and spent about $17 for a total of 24 selections. (one album plus several singles) A bargain for the smart shopper.

You forgot a pretty imporant piece of the pie. The recording study, including the rent on the room/building plus cost of all the equipment, the producer(s) and engineer(s).


Lethal

[Doctor Q]

So, out of the 99 cents we'll now pay, who gets how much?

[GregA]

Originally posted by Balin64
.... is iTunes 4 cocoa? I was under the impression that only cocoa apps sported the recessed buttons top left and took advantafe of speech services. If I am wrong and uneducated, my apologies. If not, hey, go Apple! Only iPhoto and iMovie to go and we will be all Cocoa...

Sorry, no idea, but if it is Cocoa that makes it much more portable. It would be nice to see Apple use Cocoa to get some apps to other platforms (Linux too). Make it easy for themselves to write once, run everywhere...

[Balin64]

Thanks. I was just wondering. By the way, I just bought four songs from the Apple music store. I used Toast to burn data files and audio files. They sound great, but when I inserted the audio CD back into my Mac it came up with a weird CD (nothing close to the musician's name) and title and the tracks were named wrong... strange... also: Toast recognized the new track format, but there were Quicktime file icons instead of iTunes icons. Perhaps Steve was not so honest this morning, no? Anyhowl, I got my four tracks. Interesting way the track names got changed, no? "Somebody's Watching". The songs I BOUGHT are from some obscure Mexican group I am sure few people have heard from...

[Snowy_River]

Okay, I admit, I haven't read all of these posts. I just don't have time. So, please forgive me if I reitterate anything that's already been said.

Well, I'm not yet sure what I think of all of this. I thought that I'd try downloading a song to see how it worked, but apparently my taste in music isn't mainstream enough. I looked up four artists that I like, and didn't find a single song by any one of them. Hmm... Well, I guess my saying that I won't use this service because of DRM is somewhat redundant, huh?

I am excited about the new iPods, though. I was thinking about getting a 10GB model, but then I started to take certain things into consideration. Namely, if you simply add the extra accessories on that the 15GB model comes with (i.e. remote, dock, belt clip, etc.), you essentially get up to the same price with 5GB less space. Suddenly the 15GB model started looking much better to me. So, now I just have to wait for my new 15GB iPod to get here! :D

[Shaktai]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
You forgot a pretty imporant piece of the pie. The recording study, including the rent on the room/building plus cost of all the equipment, the producer(s) and engineer(s).

Lethal

Duh! After all that and I forgot the "big" up front cost of making the recording to begin with. Thanks for the reminder. Guess I need an economics refresher too.

[MacBandit]

Originally posted by Snowy_River
Okay, I admit, I haven't read all of these posts. I just don't have time. So, please forgive me if I reitterate anything that's already been said.

Well, I'm not yet sure what I think of all of this. I thought that I'd try downloading a song to see how it worked, but apparently my taste in music isn't mainstream enough. I looked up four artists that I like, and didn't find a single song by any one of them. Hmm... Well, I guess my saying that I won't use this service because of DRM is somewhat redundant, huh?


If you can't find the songs you want let them know. There is a suggestion link at the top left of the Music Service home page. Just click it and it gives you the option to suggest an artist/song etc.. Also be sure to do an in depth search. The problem is that if you don't search exactly or broad enough it will not find the song. For instance if the artist uses odd punctuation accent marks etc. in there name you have to include that in your search or it will not turn it up.

[robbieduncan]

Originally posted by GregAussie
Sorry, no idea, but if it is Cocoa that makes it much more portable. It would be nice to see Apple use Cocoa to get some apps to other platforms (Linux too). Make it easy for themselves to write once, run everywhere...

I was sure that iTunes was going to go Cocoa as this would make it much easier to move it to Windows so as the Music Strore works theri too. But it is not. Right click on iTunes and select Show Package Contents. Navigate into contents and open the Info.plist file (probably only opens if you have the Developer Tools installed). There is a key in here called LSRequiresCarbon (actually 2 identical keys) which is set to YES. Also all the keys are either LSxxx or CFxxx whereas Cocoa apps have keys NSxxx (like NSPrincipalClass which is required for Cocoa to work).

So to sum up: ITS CARBON

[caveman_uk]

Originally posted by Timothy
For those naysayers...I think you're in left field...

3) Other countries.
This is day ONE. Give Apple a break. The licensing agreements, I'm confident, are complex. They'll roll out the other countries in due time. I understand the dissapointment, but keep it in perspective.

Yeah, but I bet you'd be pissed if SJ came out with 'we've got this cool new idea but we couldn't be bothered to sort it out for the US but it works everywhere else'. It's not just this. It's Sherlock (US-only and totally useless outside of the US. I don't even have it on my dock), iPhoto - would be great to buy one of those really nice albums. But wait there aren't any photo processing shops outside of the US are there ;) so I can't use that feature either (The Japanese tourists I see around London are obviously just pretending and can't possibly be developing their photos). I'm surprised they even let us print on A4 paper...:rolleyes:

Oh and BTW. What's the problem with people using Carbon? Cocoa's easier to start a new app in but being Carbon doesn't make anything slower or anything...probably marginally the opposite...

[foniks2020]

Originally posted by trose
Now I am not a picky audio guy, I barely notice the difference in bit rates and such....but listen to this song

Sonata "Moonlight" No.14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, Mvmt. I Adagio Sostenuto

I payed and downloaded it...and it is just not good enough quality. There is a horrible hissing noise in the backround.

Someone listen and tell me if I am crazy, and if not, are all the songs of this quality?

I hope not :(

Otherwise(big otherwise), great service! I love it from what little bit I have used.

I just downloaded the exact song you mention... just for kicks really, but I don't hear any of the defects you talk about...

I'm thinking you may have some odd AAC over USB issue or something. Did you install Quicktime 6.2? What kind of speakers? Which version of OS? 10.2.5? or earlier?

I'm on an OG TiG4 500 w/ iMic USB Audio unit to crappy PC speakers. Maybe with some real speakers I could hear what you're talking about?

Also when I first downloaded iTunes 4 and tried the service I couldn't get past the home page.. then I downloaded Quicktime 6.2, installed, restarted and all was well with the world.... apparently you must have 6.2 installed to have support for Protected AAC and the music store checks to see which version you have.

So if you have problems, go through the checklist.

iTunes 4

Quicktime 6.2

OS X 10.2.4 (preferred)

Then look at your audio devices...

[littlejim]

Originally posted by blueBomber
it just dawned on me that the firewire port is no longer built into the ipod itself. This would be a hassle for me; if I want to take it to a friends house and transfer files to their computer, I have to take the docking station instead of just a firewire cable. This kinda stinks.
Hmmm. This does mean one more thing to carry around with you.

The 10Gb iPod doesn't have the dock. I guess this means it will have the firewire connection on the iPod?

[valypan]

3) Other countries.
This is day ONE. Give Apple a break. The licensing agreements, I'm confident, are complex. They'll roll out the other countries in due time. I understand the dissapointment, but keep it in perspective.

Keep it in perspective?? Well Ill tell you my perspective. how long have we been waiting for Iphoto album and sherlock plugins in Europe?? FOREVER!! Lots of promises but nothing delivered. Sorry if this time we do not give Apple a break....

[BaghdadBob]

OK, this is the first time I've posted since last night (before the sevice came out)

I just want to say it's cool. It's not everything I would like it to be but I can have some patience and wait for it to manifest itself the way I hope it is destined to. Manifest destiny! HA! Woo-hoo....anyway......

I'm going to count myself among the alienated amongst the music listening community. Now I actually feel excited about checking out music. This is a cool feeling, one I have not had in a long time. I seriously cannot remember the last time I spent one solitary dollar on music since Lateralus (artist not available....) came out.

After checking out the service for an hour or so I went out and bought some Jim Bean (note: used to drink Wild Turkey religiously until I found out it's been bought by the french, this is my first bottle of Jim Bean...I am a bit saddened, but oh well), signed up for 1-click, and downloaded some songs I had been wanting.

You know what I am lacking? The Little Richard song from Predator. I freakin love that song, and I have been waiting to have a copy for so long. Hopefully soon they will carry Little Richard so I can have it.

Anyway, unless someone beats me to it, I'm going to start a thread for what songs people bought on their first day on the Apple Music Store (Note: WTF!?!?!? Could we have a catchy name...PLEASE?), I think this would be interesting.

Anyway, I just want you guys to know...I LOVE YOU GUYS! :p :confused: :eek: :p :D

I am such a lightweight these days...man...my old mentor would be ashamed of me...

PEACE! :D

[GovernmentAgent]

But, the final click returned an error. I'll try again in a week.

[robbieduncan]

Originally posted by littlejim
Hmmm. This does mean one more thing to carry around with you.

The 10Gb iPod doesn't have the dock. I guess this means it will have the firewire connection on the iPod?

Apple are selling a firewire to "dock" cable. I imagine that this is shipping with the 10Gb version.

Edit: It's on this page: http://www.apple.com/ipod/accessories.html

[The Shadow]

I have a 6 month old 10 GB iPod and I love it. It isn't capable of doing any less just because a new more streamlined iPod came out.

I will just have to be happy with what I've got.

But I don't feel compelled to go out and spend more big bucks just for a thinner iPod which has pathetic games I would never play, so that just leaves play lists on the fly. Yeh, so what. I mean, REALLY!

Which brings me to a point of speculation. You couldn't actually play those games very easily on the superseded iPods. So, did Apple introduce the buttons just so people could play games? :)

Yes, it would be pathetic reason, but at least it's a reason. I am yet to read any other explanations.

[skunk]

Besides not being available on the civilized side of the pond, there's no CAPTAIN BEEFHEART!!! Call this a music catalogue? Come on, Steve, get it together....

[centauratlas]

Ok, wonder what is needed next? A streaming iPod. This is an iPod that allows you to connect to the iTunes 4, rendezvous enabled, streaming function. You get a streaming iPod and plug it in like a regular iPod except you tap into your Mac's playlist via AirPort Extreme or a wired connection. This is part of the digital lifestyle you'd use around the house. You'd buy several, one for each stereo in the house and merely use the stereo for output. A true remote lets you tap into your streaming iPod and control the selections via IR or, perhaps, Airport Extreme.

How long until Apple releases this, one would hope during the year of the Music and the year of the portable.

[thrice]

Originally posted by Qball
Just curious -- I suppose you create a username and provide them with a credit card number. Is that basically the gist of it?

Yes, that's the gist. If you've ever used 1-click for Apple's website or Amazon, it's the same thing...HOWEVER...you can turn the 1-click option off in your iTunes preferences menu Preferences> Store, and have your shopping work a la shopping cart so you pick out songs and then when you're ready you can go to the shopping cart and delete songs that you change your mind about. So there's two shopping options.

[abdul]

hi i havent got a clue how the ipod works, but im wondering now whats the use of the rotating wheel (apart from scrolling) as you've got buttons for most ofthe functions now.,. or is that the only function:confused:

[caek]

Hi,

I've posted a list of the problems or questions I have about the new Music service, and a clarification of the significance of whether the new iTunes is Cocoa or Carbon on my blog (http://www.pentangle.net).

Briefly they are:

International availability

Where does the money go?

Buying complete albums having bought several tracks

Is an Audio CD burnt from downloaded AAC files Redbook-compliant?

The exact nature of user interaction required after the tenth burn.

Can J. Random Musician add his own unsigned music and get paid for it?

You can't browse while listening to a preview.


I make my own more detailed points on these in the blog (http://www.pentangle.net).

[Mudbug]

Originally posted by abdul
hi i havent got a clue how the ipod works, but im wondering now whats the use of the rotating wheel (apart from scrolling) as you've got buttons for most ofthe functions now.,. or is that the only function:confused:

you still use the wheel for navigating the folders in the ipod to select songs, view calendars, play solitare, etc. The buttons give you side to side, and of course play functions, but the wheels gives you up and down, not to mention volume control.

[caveman_uk]

Oh and to insult to injury as well as not getting the music service we get to pay more for the ipods as well

10GB $299 = £186 + tax = £218 AppleStore Price £249 difference £31 = $50
15GB £399 = £249 + tax = £292 Applestore Price £299 difference £7
30GB $499 = £311 + tax = £365 Applestore price £399 difference £34

Thanks a lot. So the 15GB is the one to buy if don't want to pay $50 extra to Apple for nothing.

[aharon]

I also had alot of the 405 & 504 issues, at first. Of course, I forgot to update Quicktime. After updating, the service worked great for me. I found about 10 songs that I wanted, it was a pleasurable user experience.

I agree with alot here about the indie labels, but I do think they will fall into place.

I haven't read through every post here, about half. But really my only concern is the archiving situation. Guess I'll have to be mindful about archiving these songs. It would be nice if Apple retained a list of all your bought songs and allowed you to download them more than once. Maybe they do? I have no idea.

[alfonsog]

Originally posted by foniks2020
I just downloaded the exact song you mention... just for kicks really, but I don't hear any of the defects you talk about...

I'm thinking you may have some odd AAC over USB issue or something. Did you install Quicktime 6.2? What kind of speakers? Which version of OS? 10.2.5? or earlier?

I'm on an OG TiG4 500 w/ iMic USB Audio unit to crappy PC speakers. Maybe with some real speakers I could hear what you're talking about?

Also when I first downloaded iTunes 4 and tried the service I couldn't get past the home page.. then I downloaded Quicktime 6.2, installed, restarted and all was well with the world.... apparently you must have 6.2 installed to have support for Protected AAC and the music store checks to see which version you have.

So if you have problems, go through the checklist.

iTunes 4

Quicktime 6.2

OS X 10.2.4 (preferred)

Then look at your audio devices...

Just to let you know this is not an all digital recording. Rubenstein, the pianist, died in 1982. There would be background hiss on the original cd. By the way you could buy this one in the store for under $10 it is a mid-budget classical cd.

Anyway one other thing...

Where are the liner notes when buying full albums, especially for opera/musical words/translations and for information about performers and composers, essential for classical music?

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by robbieduncan
Apple are selling a firewire to "dock" cable. I imagine that this is shipping with the 10Gb version.

Edit: It's on this page: http://www.apple.com/ipod/accessories.html

All iPods comes w/the firewre-to-dock cable. The 15 and 30 gig versions come w/a dock. The dock and the cable are seperate so you don't have to use the dock if you don't want to.


Lethal

[GregA]

Originally posted by caveman_uk
Oh and to insult to injury as well as not getting the music service we get to pay more for the ipods as well

10GB $299 = £186 + tax = £218 AppleStore Price £249 difference £31 = $50
15GB £399 = £249 + tax = £292 Applestore Price £299 difference £7
30GB $499 = £311 + tax = £365 Applestore price £399 difference £34

Be thankful... in Australia we're worse off (except for the 10GB). Unfortunately our salaries are quite a drop lower than the US or UK.

10GB $299 = A$483 + tax = $531 AppleStore Price A$595 difference $64 ... so
10GB costs us US$40 more
15GB costs us US$55 more
30GB costs us US$69 more

Then again, it is improving. Until yesterday the 10GB was $845 (US$523). How much was it in the US? That much is a great improvement!

I would love to see an Australian music download.

[twelve]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
You forgot a pretty imporant piece of the pie. The recording study, including the rent on the room/building plus cost of all the equipment, the producer(s) and engineer(s).


Lethal

you people are naive if you think records cannot be made for a fraction of the price which a "major' produces. Lets spend 1000.00 an hour (per engineer and producer) instead of 25 and have the band produce. yeah dude!

you people souind like the anti-war activists trying to defend a dictatorship.

[cliffcurtis]

Old 5gig iPod + new 1.3 update =
NO alarm clock!
NO new games!
NO on-the-go-playlists!

I have to assume it was intentionally left out, since my iPod can already play the brick game, and has a clock, and recognizes playlists. Is that incentive for me to buy a new iPod? NO.

- Cliff

Originally posted by coolbreeze
Will the new iPod software allow on-the-fly playlists and ratings on old iPods (2nd generation) or just the new ones? I can't find a solid answer on that...

[robbieduncan]

Originally posted by LethalWolfe
All iPods comes w/the firewre-to-dock cable. The 15 and 30 gig versions come w/a dock. The dock and the cable are seperate so you don't have to use the dock if you don't want to.


Lethal

I realised this after I saw some pictures of the dock from the side (which was after I posted). People were complaining that they had to carry the dock with them - this is not the case. If the dock is going to be usefull though you probably want it set up all the time so will want to purchase another cable so as you are not always plugging/unplugging the dock one.

[LethalWolfe]

Originally posted by twelve
you people are naive if you think records cannot be made for a fraction of the price which a "major' produces. Lets spend 1000.00 an hour (per engineer and producer) instead of 25 and have the band produce. yeah dude!

you people souind like the anti-war activists trying to defend a dictatorship.


I'm naive because I mentioned additional costs that the original poster left out? That makes sense. Did you see me defending the current price of CDs or the majors? No. I merely corrected an omission. Before jumping on your soap box again you might consider brushing up on your reading comprehension skills.


Lethal

[Rower_CPU]

Originally posted by cliffcurtis
Old 5gig iPod + new 1.3 update =
NO alarm clock!
NO new games!
NO on-the-go-playlists!

I have to assume it was intentionally left out, since my iPod can already play the brick game, and has a clock, and recognizes playlists. Is that incentive for me to buy a new iPod? NO.

- Cliff

Isn't there an alarms option in the Settings menu?

[Flowbee]

Originally posted by alfonsog
Just to let you know this is not an all digital recording. Rubenstein, the pianist, died in 1982. There would be background hiss on the original cd. By the way you could buy this one in the store for under $10 it is a mid-budget classical cd.


Yes, it's good to remember that just because *most* of the albums are good deals, not all of them are. It still pays to shop around. For example, there are a few operas on Apple's music store that a much cheaper to buy from Amazon. That being said, anyone who's interested in having a complete opera would probably want the actual cd's anyway (for the production notes, libretto, etc).

[j33pd0g]

I also have no alarm clock, no new games, no on-the-go-playlists... Maybe the update is differant then the one that comes with the new iPods.

This is funny, the smallest withdrawl I've ever seen in my account. I got ripped a penny more than 99 cents.
:mad:

[damax452]

Which iPod do you guys think is the best deal?

10gb for $299 has no dock, carrying case or remote, 15gb for $399 has the dock/case/remote(~$100 value) , but is only 5gb more. And finally the 30gb at $499 has twice the capacity as 15gb for $100 more, but is thicker and slightly heavier. Im thinking the 15gb is the best deal so far (since i only have about 10gb of music). I also think the smaller size is just cool. But i do like the old design better, no contest. What do you think?

[valypan]

Ok guys I contacted Steve Jobs at Apple and this is what he answered about the fact that the Itunes Music Store is not available in Europe yet.

"The problem lies with the music companies, not Apple. We are working to resolve it ASAP."

So lets hope they manage to sort it out soon.

[Qball]

Originally posted by Mudbug
you still use the wheel for navigating the folders in the ipod to select songs, view calendars, play solitare, etc. The buttons give you side to side, and of course play functions, but the wheels gives you up and down, not to mention volume control.

Is there still a button in the middle of the wheel. Hard to tell in the photos...

[Qball]

Originally posted by robbieduncan
I realised this after I saw some pictures of the dock from the side (which was after I posted). People were complaining that they had to carry the dock with them - this is not the case. If the dock is going to be usefull though you probably want it set up all the time so will want to purchase another cable so as you are not always plugging/unplugging the dock one.

What about charging the new iPod in the car cigarette lighter? I don't own an iPod yet and am having trouble picturing this -- will new chargers need to come out, or can an old car charger with a firewire cable somehow be plugged into the dock-to-firewire cable?

[trose]

Ok. About my hissing audio noise.

First- I noticed I had QT 6.1 . I tried to do Quicktime update and Software update and neither showed 6.2 as an option, which was odd. Anyhoo, I did manage to get it installed by manually downloading from Apple.com .

Second- That did not fix the problem. I think it must just be what you fellas said about being a non-digital recording. I just lowered the 16-8-4k bars to nothing and the hiss is gone. I also noticed that my speakers output a very quiet hiss of their own :\ . Not noticable unless you try to hear it, which is obvious by the fact that I did not hear it for the year I have had em :)

Srry to make you download a song to hear the noise, but hey, who doesnt like the Moonlight Sonata?

[JGowan]

Originally posted by jelloshotsrule
i think it's the first day.... 200k songs is not all that much as many people have said. but it seems to me that apple is doing (or at least having a part in) the encoding themselves... so i don't mind that it takes them some time.

rather have em paying workers to get os x flying than making sure madonna is available...

though i certainly see your point. it's just a matter of time i'm sure. He mentions Beatles, Rolling Stones and Madonna and you think it's because Apple just didn't HAVE TIME to do these people? Wouldn't you think they would encode the VERY HOTTEST and BESTING SELLING acts first for the store. Obviously, these acts' record companies said NO, WE'RE DOING JUST FINE WITHOUT LOSING MONEY ON THIS SPECIFIC GROUP OF ARTISTS.

Unless Apple can show these artists facts & figures (How many searches were done and how much money is pouring in) then you won't be seeing the biggest acts any time soon. No matter who's doing the AAC work.

[cliffcurtis]

There is an "Alarm" option in the Settings menu, but it works with the Calendar and you can't set it from your iPod. The new alarm clock should show up under the Extras/Clock menu rather then the Settings menu. But it doesn't on my 5gig iPod.

Originally posted by Rower_CPU
Isn't there an alarms option in the Settings menu?

[Winston Smith]

Originally posted by caveman_uk
Yeah, but I bet you'd be pissed if SJ came out with 'we've got this cool new idea but we couldn't be bothered to sort it out for the US but it works everywhere else'. It's not just this. It's Sherlock (US-only and totally useless outside of the US. I don't even have it on my dock), iPhoto - would be great to buy one of those really nice albums. But wait there aren't any photo processing shops outside of the US are there ;) so I can't use that feature either (The Japanese tourists I see around London are obviously just pretending and can't possibly be developing their photos). I'm surprised they even let us print on A4 paper...:rolleyes:

Oh and BTW. What's the problem with people using Carbon? Cocoa's easier to start a new app in but being Carbon doesn't make anything slower or anything...probably marginally the opposite...

This quote was in reply to a post saying give Apple a break its only day one they'll work it out for the rest of the world.

Well that was said about iPhoto albums........still waiting.

It will be time for Linux if this goes to Windows in the US before Apple users in the rest of the world.

Those not in the US might feel better if Apple at least commented on the products it hadn't bothered to release - why, when, because of etc.

I'm sure someone can comment on % of Apple revenues from overseas.

As for Sherlock - named after a character who lived in London and created by an English author - it ain't cool if you can't use it.

But of course it's all just a reality distortion field.

And no Communication device.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[Winston Smith]

International Users may want to follow this link:

International users petition to Apple (http://www.petitiononline.com/AppleInt/petition.html)

[wrylachlan]

I asked this earlier but got no response. In Jobs presentation he made a point of mentioning that the Store automatically tagged "Adult Content" songs like Eminem. Does this mean there is a parental control built into iTunes to prevent your kids from buying these tracks? Anyone? Anyone?